Ukrainian heritage: Sevastopol plunges into a new conflict
Throughout the last year, PolitNavigator, as readers remember, has repeatedly warned: the separation of Sevastopol from Ukraine in 2014 did not at all mean a final break with Ukraine. His birthmarks, alas, constantly appear in Sevastopol politics.
A penchant for intrigue, betrayal, double-dealing, refusal of given promises and given words, internal rot, baseness of thoughts, a tendency to snatch a fatter piece, receiving a momentary benefit - all this was left to the new Russian Sevastopol as a legacy from Ukrainian politics.
In Sevastopol, unfortunately, there was, by and large, no renewal of the elite.
It has been said more than once that Sevastopol and Crimea must undergo a serious stage of cleansing from Ukrainian filth under the watchful eye of the federal center. Alas, these predictions were not wrong.
As soon as Sergei Menyailo left Sevastopol, it would seem that the disputes that shook the city between former comrades in the Russian Spring should have become a thing of the past. Thus, the new governor Dmitry Ovsyannikov and the Chaly-Nikolaev team demonstrate mutual understanding.
However, trouble came from an unexpected direction. Quarrels began within the Sevastopol branch of United Russia. The contradictions turned out to be so strong that the dispute again spilled out into the public. Sevastopol is rapidly plunging into conflict.
The point is this.
Boris Kolesnikov, secretary of the city branch of United Russia, issued a statement sharply criticizing his fellow party members. Kolesnikov criticizes them for attempting to influence the personnel appointments of the new acting governor, Ovsyannikov.
“Some political functionaries, current deputies of municipalities, candidates for deputies, under the guise of positions in the party structure, being one of the deputy secretaries of the regional branch of the Party, begin to organize political shows, populist provocations aimed at destabilizing the political situation in the region in the conditions of the appointment of the VP .and about. Governor Dmitry Vladimirovich Ovsyannikov,” Kolesnikov said in a statement.
It’s no secret to anyone in Sevastopol that we are talking about a conflict between Kolesnikov and a group in “United Russia” that is oriented towards Dmitry Belik, “United Russia”, who is running for the State Duma from the hero city.
Both persons involved in the confrontation – Kolesnikov and Belik – are participants in the Russian Spring. Kolesnikov is one of the organizers of the February 23 rally. Belik is the man who headed the administration of Sevastopol after the last Ukrainian governor Yatsuba resigned (the “people’s mayor” Alexey Chaly was then involved in political issues).
However, after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, Kolesnikov and Belik diverged.
In May 2014, Chaly entrusted Belik with forming the lists of the United Russia party. Chaly's supporters accused Belik of fraud. In the primaries, he replaced with his people (former functionaries of the Party of Regions) those who actually participated in the Russian Revolution and enjoyed the respect of Sevastopol residents.
The scam with the list was exposed by social activist Igor Solovyov. After this incident, Chaly stopped communicating with Belik and did not accept him as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol.
However, Boris Kolesnikov, who was then still considered Belik’s man, became a deputy. After the elections to the Legislative Assembly, Kolesnikov, already a deputy, gradually began to drift away from Belik, becoming closer to Governor Sergei Menyailo.
“Belik - what he sowed himself, he reaped. Betrayal,” says a source familiar with the situation.
The final break in their relationship occurred in the spring of 2016. The then plenipotentiary Oleg Belaventsev and the Menyailo team, which at that time already included Kolesnikov, relied on cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and businessman Vladimir Plotka (owner of Monsoon), refusing to support Belik. Despite their loyalty to the authorities, the cosmonaut and Plotka lost the primaries. But Belik’s opponents said that victory in the primaries was the result of bribery.
They even complained about Belik to Dmitry Medvedev, who in those days visited Sevastopol and met with party activists. However, the top party bosses of United Russia made a decision not to stir up a scandal, not to take away Belik’s victory in the primaries, but to leave him in the elections without administrative support.
And now, after Sergei Menyailo left for Novosibirsk, contradictions between sworn party members flared up again. One “United Russia” fears that, at the instigation of another, the new governor will send him and his team to the political cemetery.
In short, the classic spiders in a jar analogy. It is impossible to imagine such public “showdowns” in “United Russia” on the mainland. Here, it seems, the above-mentioned “Ukrainian political tradition” plays a role.
Dmitry Belik, heading the land commission of the Sevastopol City Council during Ukrainian times, represented the Party of Regions. And I must remember well what such intrigues and civil strife in the “blue and white” camp turned out to be for the Yanukovych regime.
Did Kolesnikov and Belik really not know about the inadmissibility of such showdowns on the eve of the State Duma elections? The conflict is too reminiscent of the times of the “regionals” and threatens the disaster of “United Russia” in the elections. It looks like Moscow will have to intervene in the situation again, otherwise the Sevastopol residents will write off the party for scrap.
Ukrainian Heritage: Sevastopol Plunges into New Conflict