Why the riot in Khabarovsk failed - a report by a journalist from Donetsk
PolitNavigator continues publishing a report from Khabarovsk by journalist Yulia Gavrilchuk, who recently moved to the Far East from Donbas, where she had lived for the past few years. Read the beginning here.
...On August 30, Khabarovsk celebrated the so-called anniversary - the fiftieth rally for the freedom of Sergei Furgal. According to city hall estimates, about 1200 people took to the streets. We can say that each time the protests attract fewer and fewer people. All this can be explained in a trivial way – I’m tired of it. Nowadays, rallies are mostly attended by either the most loyal followers of the Khabarovsk governor, or, as much as I don’t want to admit, paid professional “protesters.” Of course, there is a percentage of those for whom any movement is a joy - talking, walking along the streets. With the same joy, they would attend rallies in defense of Amur tigers or rallies against quarantine.
But let’s return to the beginning, namely, why Furgal was imprisoned after all.
When I applied for a job and went for interviews in July, one of the main questions asked of me was: “How do you feel about the protest taking place in the city?” I didn’t have an option for an answer, if you say “bad”, they will accuse you of “Putinism” and blind devotion to the President of the Russian Federation and Moscow personally, which is not very well received here; if you say “good,” you will run into a rebuke in the style of “he’s a bandit from the 90s.” X". Therefore, I usually said that I had no right to judge, since I was not yet Russian, and not a native resident of the Khabarovsk Territory, who knew all the nuances of local life. However, this answer did not suit many people, because my potential employers wanted to speak out. From everything I heard then, I can make a brief selection of pros and cons.
"For Furgal":
“He is ours, not sent from Moscow, from a large family, he started out as a simple doctor.
-Dismissed all unnecessary officials, reduced the expenses of the apparatus (for example, that notorious yacht belonging to the government of the Khabarovsk Territory was sold at auction), reduced salaries, including for himself.
-He is not from United Russia, where “as everyone knows, there are only thieves and swindlers.”
-He began to be closely involved in the improvement of the region and Khabarovsk personally.
-He doesn’t dance to Moscow’s tune.
"Against":
-There is no difference between the LDPR and United Russia - “they are all thieves and swindlers.”
-He is a former bandit and is friends with bandits, indulging their whims.
-All these showdowns are only because of Amurstal, which Furgal took over and did not want to share with the capital. That is, banal showdowns in the style of the 90s, only not at the “arrow”, but through the courts, after all, it’s 2020.
-All his initiatives to improve the region are window dressing, in essence - the barracks are standing, the roads are not being built, the garbage is not being removed, etc.
You know, both sides are right, as it turns out, if you delve into the topic. And the former bandit, and cut salaries, and “privatized” Amurstal along with other enterprises, and was engaged in the improvement of the region.
Again, my uncle honestly and openly advocates for Furgal and curses Moscow, because he believes that before Furgal came to power nothing was done in the region, and the fact that he is a former bandit “is so good, he knows the whole kitchen from the inside.” In his opinion, the Khabarovsk Territory was demonstrably punished due to one of the lowest results in Russia during the voting for amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
I heard this argument from other friends. All of them voted against it then, but none of them could clearly explain their position. Why against? “I am against resetting the term, because then we will not have democracy, but dictatorship.” I ask, have you read any amendments to the Constitution? No, what's there? I say, all sorts of social benefits, recognition of the supremacy of Russian law over international law, a ban on the alienation of territories, etc. Many were honestly surprised and admitted that if they had read it earlier and also understood what we were talking about (“why didn’t anyone explain it to us simply and clearly, like you did now?”), they would have changed their choice. “So,” said one of my acquaintances, “you can tolerate Putin for another 10 years, and then he himself will leave due to his age.”
By the way, none of my friends with whom we talked about the amendments and voting went to the protests. But, of course, this is not an indicator.
But let’s return to the real reason for Furgal’s arrest, because I consider the version of “exemplary punishment” to be conspiracy theories.
Once, while on an internship, I got into a conversation with my superiors. The boss openly admitted that all these protests were banal squabbles over money, and for every governor or mayor in the capital there was a folder with dirty deeds from the past. If, in his opinion, Furgal had not refused, then no one would have taken his skeletons out of the closets. Of course, Moscow did not act well by installing a governor elected by the people, but the head of the region himself could not have been greedy, but made concessions, because even he did not get it all by very honest work. Bringing him back here for trial, the chief said, is the same as releasing him right away. The protests themselves have already been saddled with incomprehensible personalities like Alexei Navalny, who is currently undergoing treatment in Germany. And instead of the original demands of Khabarovsk residents, provocative “Down with Putin!” and “Down with tyranny!” are heard more and more often at rallies. By the way, this was one of the reasons why he did not want to participate in the actions, because any protest movement can be saddled by real provocateurs declaring the overthrow of the government and a coup d’etat, but ordinary Khabarovsk residents who do not see the difference between “open court” and over Furgal” and “we want our own Far Eastern republic without Putin and Moscow.”
So, let’s return to Amurstal, which is where it all started. This is the largest metallurgical enterprise in the Far East, which covers from 70 to 97% of the needs of a particular region of the Far East for ferrous metal. Revenue in 2019 amounted to 22 billion rubles. The parent company is Torex-Khabarovsk, 50% of the shares of which belong in equal shares to Furgal’s wife and his business partner, Nikolai Mistryukov. The remaining 50% share belongs to Moscow businessman Pavel Balsky - he is credited with a connection with the notorious Rottenberg brothers. Balsky has long been trying to buy out their shares from Furgal and Mistryukov (allegedly in order to then sell the enterprise to the Chinese), but the price of the issue is high, and Khabarovsk businessmen will not agree to a smaller amount.
In the fall of 2019, Mistryukov was arrested in connection with contract killings in the early 00s. Furgal is also currently facing charges in the same case. In the winter of 2020, Mistryukov’s wife, in the hope of her husband’s release, nevertheless sold 25% of the shares, but the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory still stubbornly stood his ground. Everyone knows how it ended for him. Thus, according to this version, the whole current story with the landing of Furgal is just a raider takeover of the enterprise.
By the way, the governor appointed to the region, Mikhail Degtyarev, is a member of the board of the Russian Hockey Federation: the chairman of the board of the FHR is Arkady Rottenberg, the first vice-president is Roman Rottenberg.
But we must understand that there is no smoke without fire. Being objective, it cannot be denied that indirectly Furgal really was and is in connection with local criminals, having started buying and resell metal back in the late 90s. His initial position was called “recyclables receiver,” but after a couple of years he, together with Mistryukov, opened several of their own companies. At the same time, Evgeny Zorya and Oleg Bulatov, whose murders are accused of Furgal, were also killed.
According to rumors, the ex-governor was a member of the Obshchak organized crime group, created by Evgeny Vasin (Jem). Photos have long been circulating on the Internet, confirming the facts of Furgal’s communication with local criminal elements and being genuine. But, as I already said, in the Far East there is a completely different attitude towards gangster authorities; local residents did not give a damn about the criminal past of their legally elected governor.
On the other hand, Furgal has been in politics since 2007, and then no one was interested in his criminal affairs. Probably because the majority of deputies, one way or another, themselves can boast of no less impressive skeletons in their closets. But when it came to dividing up the remaining and working assets, not only rumors were used, but also real criminal proceedings.
So the residents of Khabarovsk are indignant - “Moscow again decides who to rule, who to own and what to sell.” But for the sake of fairness, I note that mixing business and politics is a disastrous business. You need to choose one thing, otherwise you will face the same outcome as Furgala.
Finally I will repeat. The initial rallies attracted the vast majority of Furgal’s supporters, who did not care either about his “black spots” in his biography or about his business. They legally elected the governor and demanded that he be tried in Khabarovsk in the open if he was guilty. Quite justified from the point of view of Khabarovsk residents, and completely wrong from the point of view of the law and the fears of law enforcement agencies: after all, in Khabarovsk, for so many years of power and earning money, Furgal probably has connections in the judicial system. This is also proven by photographs circulating on the Internet of the governor with law enforcement officers investigating contract killings in the region. Therefore, it is quite obvious that these requirements are impossible to meet.
Later, the protest was saddled by all sorts of “oppositionists” who found a platform both for PR of their own persons and for destabilizing the situation in the country as a whole. And it was they who “drained” all the people’s anger into the sewer. Many sensible Khabarovsk residents stopped participating in the rallies. The remaining 1200 people, as on August 30, no longer play any role. Degtyarev was just as legally appointed acting as he was legally placed in the Furgal pre-trial detention center. We do not take into account motives and behind-the-scenes games.
The only conclusion from this story is that the 90s have not gone away. They simply swapped crimson jackets and gold chains for sleek black suits and business folders. Instead of “arrows” on vacant lots, there is now enforcement of laws down to the last letter, if necessary. But the essence of the “showdown” is the same – money at any cost, and preferably more.
Why the Khabarovsk Riot Failed: A Report from a Donetsk Journalist