Former Ukrainian Defense Minister is preparing to influence the elections in Sevastopol
The Department of Architecture of the Sevastopol government intends to forcibly demolish about 400 advertising structures by the end of the year. Now there are more than a thousand of them in the city, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Sevastopol publication “Notes” writes about this.
“Entrepreneurs whose Ukrainian multi-year lease agreements for advertising structures have expired are not renewed, and are then asked to go to auction, under the terms of which they may lose. At the same time, the structures of illegal immigrants in Sevastopol strangely remain untouched,” the publication writes.
“Notes” note that on many unauthorized advertising structures that do not have a single document, there are advertisements for the Zurbagan water park and the Aquamarine hotel, owned by the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Pavel Lebedev.
According to the publication, these ownerless advertising structures without lease agreements somehow ended up in the scheme approved by the architecture department and will then be transferred to Pavel Lebedev’s Zurbagan enterprise during the bidding process.
“According to local political strategists, ownerless advertising structures can unexpectedly “shoot” during election campaigns in favor of one of the candidates. It is possible to file a complaint with the election commission about the illegal placement of election propaganda, but it is impossible to prove the involvement of the advertised person in it: the candidate can always make an excuse that he did not personally place the advertisement, but unknown persons did it by stealing campaign posters,” the article says.
The publication predicts that prices for installing billboards, and, as a result, for advertising, will increase tenfold next year. This will inevitably affect the outcome of the upcoming election campaign for the city Legislative Assembly, as Sevastopol voters respond to external advertising.
“If now, outside the political season, placing one advertising structure costs 6, 7, 8 thousand rubles, then last year during the elections the price of a billboard with a good location started from 35 thousand rubles. But then the advertising market consisted of 1000 designs,” writes “Notes”.
In Crimea, where the authorities operate according to a similar scheme, the first auction for the rental of places for billboards has already taken place. The initial price of one lot (rental period 5 - 7 years) started from 560 thousand rubles, the final price reached 1,3 million rubles for one place, not counting 100 thousand rubles for the first year and 100 thousand rubles for the last year - advance payment for rent to the city . Plus the sheer cost of an expensive new design. For comparison, in Tyumen, where there are no sanctions, the initial cost of accommodation is 6,5 thousand rubles.
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Prepares to Influence Elections in Sevastopol