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A Governor with the Pad
On February 4, Russia witnessed the appointment of the first governor who got this office through the new procedure. Sergey Darkin was approved for the office by the deputies of Primorye's Legislative Assembly. The candidature of Darkin had been suggested by the president. Darkin by right had earned the rank of Putin's first nominee: in just several years from a little known businessman he turned into a skilful and circumspect politician.
Sergey Darkin was born in 1963 in the city of Bolshoy Kamen (Primorye). In 1985, he graduated from the Far Eastern Naval College, worked in the commercial port of Vladivostok. In 1991, he headed the Roliz company (Russian Leasing) that worked in fishing industry. On June 17, 2001, he was elected the governor of the Primorye region.
A Candidate
Primorye's political scientists have never been able to explain the reasons for the sensational outcome of the 2001 elections scheduled after the resignation of governor Evgeny Nazdratenko. In the first round Sergey Darkin who was not known by the majority of the population outstripped such “heavy-weights” as the ex-mayor of Vladivostok, Victor Cherepkov, deputy presidential representative in the Far-Eastern Federal District Gennady Apanasenko who was considered to be the favorite, first vice-governor of the region, Valentin Dubinin, and director general of the Primorsk Shipping Corporation Alexander Kirilichev.
In the course of the campaign Apanasenko presented himself as the Kremlin's candidate. However, Darkin's large-scale campaign under the slogan “It is us that will live here” stood out from the “black PR” that other candidates resorted to. He did not criticize his rivals. Instead in every possible way he indicated to the citizens of Primorye (who were tired of the political stand-off) that he intended to be involved exclusively in economic activity in the office of the governor.
In the second round despite the powerful administrative support on the part of the office of the presidential representative in the Far East and despite the fact that Victor Cherepkov had been barred from the elections, Gennady Apanasenko got only 24% against Sergey Darkin's 40,5%. Back then the majority of the local political scientists agreed that the new governor owed his victory to the support on the part of Evgeny Nazdratenko. Many staff of the ex-governor worked in Darkin's election headquarters and on the eve of the second round Nazdratenko publicly supported the businessman. The heads of the cities and regions who remained loyal to the former governor ensured administrative support to his stooge.
However, Darkin denied connection with Nazdratenko. “Indeed he did say a couple of good words about me and I am thankful to Evgeny Ivanovich for that. However, as far as I know he rendered assistance to no one in these elections,” said Darkin soon after his victory. Quite quickly the new governor proved his independence of Nazdratenko: Darkin appointed those who were personally loyal to him to all the key positions in the administration. As for the former governor of the region who headed Goskomrybolovstvo (State Fisheries Committee), already by the end of 2001 Darkin had a serious conflict with him because of the distribution of quotas for the fishing of marine bio-resources (the sides lobbied the interests of different companies).
An Administrator
Having accustomed himself to the governor office, Sergey Darkin began working on the improvement of his reputation. The rumors that he was well known in the criminal world were widely spread as far back as the time of the governor election campaign. However, back then the regional department of the Interior Ministry made an official statement, according to which, it possessed no discrediting information on Sergey Darkin. In 2002 though, in the Moment Istiny TV program on the TV-Center channel they showed a video of a party where the criminal authorities of Primorye were present. The video dated back to the beginning of the 90-s. Sergey Darkin was among those present at the party and was called Serega Shepelyavy by others. The governor claimed that the discrediting video was a skilful montage and filed a suit claiming reputational damage. The court recognized the accusations as false and determined the amount in damages to be paid to Darkin as 300 thousand rubles (the plaintiff demanded 1 million rubles).
Having dealt with the spiteful critics Sergey Darkin got down to the work on increasing his political weight. To feel an absolute master he had to solve two important tasks: to achieve total loyalty on the part of Primorye's LA and to replace the mayors of two most significant cities – Vladivostok and Nakhodka (Yuri Kopylov and Victor Gnezdilov were known as Evgeny Nazdratenko's firm supporters).
The regional parliament did not give in right away. In November 2002, when the deputies were electing their representative to the Federation Council, the regional administration suggested the candidature of vice-governor Igor Ivanov. However, the deputies preferred Nazdratenko's personal friend - the head of the board of directors of Preobrazhenskaya Base of Trawl Fleet, Oleg Kozhemyako. This failure was all the more tangible for Darkin because Kozhemyako did not conceal his governor ambitions. The regional administration exerted all possible effort to neutralize the potential rival: they essentially cut the fishing quotas for the PBTF, the enterprise began having financial difficulties and Kozhemyako was compelled to transfer a substantial part of business to Kamchatka. In September 2004, the work with the deputies brought its fruit - the LA decided to recall their representative in the Federation Council. Oleg Kozhemyako did not wait for that to happen and resigned.
The struggle against the mayor of Vladivostok, Yuri Kopylov, turned out to be even more difficult. In 2002, the regional authorities tried to make him resign by initiating the unification of the capital of the region and the Artyom satellite town into a single municipal entity. New elections of the mayor were to be held. Having met resistance on the part of municipal heads, the administration backed off.
In the elections of the mayor of Vladivostok in July 2004 the regional authorities staked upon Vladimir Nikolayev - a deputy of Primorye's LA. By that time all the local TV channels and the majority of the radio stations were already controlled by the regional administration and Nikolayev's opponents had no access to them. The protégé of the governor was also backed up by the administrative resource: Victor Cherepkov who made it into the second round was once again barred from the elections. As a result Vladimir Nikolayev gained a sure victory – he collected more than 52% of votes. Apparently having evaluated his chances in the new political situation, in December 2004, Victor Gnezdilov refused to run for the office of Nakhodka's mayor. It was the stooge of the regional authorities, the director general of the local fishing port, Oleg Kolyadin, that won.
A Politician
Parallel to that Sergey Darkin was consolidating his positions on the federal level as well. Already in January 2004, he was so sure of himself that he replaced his representative in the Federation Council, Valery Manilov, with first vice-governor Igor Ivanov. Former first deputy head of the General Staff Manilov became a member of the Federation Council in the August of 2001 and the representatives of the regional authorities did not conceal the fact that it had been the presidential administration that had insisted on his candidature. The regional authorities explained the need in his replacement in 2004 by the fact that Ivanov was better acquainted with Primorye's specificity. This replacement did not result in any conflicts with the Kremlin. Darkin had always been pointedly loyal to the latter.
In November 2004, when it became clear that membership in United Russia was a most important condition for further political career the earlier convinced non-party Darkin joined the power party. When asked by Vlast how he could explain this decision he answered shortly: “Support of the presidential policy.” Such fine intuition of the political situation was also demonstrated by Primorye's head once the law on the new order of governor elections was adopted. At the end of the last year he said that he would determine his future after the meeting with Vladimir Putin that was scheduled for January. On January 17, this meeting took place. The governor of Primorye took advantage of the provision of the new law, according to which, before their term in authority expired the heads of regions could bring up with the president the question on trust towards them and on their re-appointment according to the new procedure.
Shortly before that there were rumors in Primorye that presidential representative Pulikovsky might take a revenge for the fiasco of his candidate in the summer of 2001 and not include Sergey Darkin into the list of candidatures for the office of the region's head. This was why Darkin decided to take a risk and was right: it was his candidature that was submitted by the president to the LA of Primorye.
The presidential representative had to reconcile himself to this. Several days before the Primorye parliament considered the approval of Sergey Darkin's candidature, the latter received fervent compliments from Konstantin Pulikovsky. “In the eight years of work he will become the manager of the highest class”, - the presidential representative assured the journalists. “He might be offered to head a larger region. He has a wide open pad in front of him.”
According to a deputy of the regional LA Nikolay Markovtsev, “Darkin has taken advantage of the psychological factor. He demonstrated that he completely entrusted his fate into the hands of the president. It was hard to turn down the first governor who risked resorting to the provisions of the new law.” The approval of Darkin's candidature was a technical matter - he was supported by 35 out of 36 deputies.
A Business Manager
According to the deputies, it is Sergey Darkin's achievements in the economy that have become the main argument in favor of the approval. “The gross regional product has increased by more than 2,5 times during the time of the administration's work, the average salary – by 3 times – to 9 thousand rubles. Many social-economic problems have been solved,” announced the speaker of the LA, Sergey Sopchuk. “I remember the crisis Primorye was in for four years, the problems with wintertime, with energy supply. Now everything has changed to the better. The figures of growth are impressive,” echoed presidential representative Pulikovsky.
However, the opinion about the economic success of the governor voiced by his not numerous opponents is not that unambiguous. “The average salary has indeed increased,” admitted Nikolay Markovtsev – the only deputy in the LA who voted against Sergey Darkin. “But the purchasing capacity of the population has remained practically on the previous level because prices for food, consumer goods and tariffs for the housing communal services have drastically risen in 3,5 years. As for the solution of the problems connected with heat supply (something that the regional administration is so proud of), the report received on November 9, 2004 by Primorye's LA from the regional department of the State Technical Supervision (Gostekhnadzor) reads that by November 1, when the heating season had already started, only 10% of the boiler-rooms were certified as ready for work and only 50% of the heating systems were prepared. Of course we have not had cases of whole villages being left without heat as it used to happen under Nazdratenko. However, in many buildings especially in remote districts people are freezing. Nobody is writing about that though, nobody is showing it on TV. The press is quiet. We should give Darkin his due here: it was his talent to convince the federal authorities that everything was all right in Primorye and that he was absolutely loyal to the center that allowed him to remain in power.”
Aleksey Chernyshev, Vladivostok
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 14, 2005
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Photo: Vasiliy Shitov
