So. Several people wrote to me in the comments, and even by email, asking me to comment on the tram tracks that were paved over. Basically: why are you keeping quiet when the entire public is crying out about it?
And although Belykh himself seems to have already explained everything on this subject, I’ll add a few words. This is basically how it all happens. In broad terms—I don’t know all the details, because I had nothing to do with the preparations and could not have had anything to do with them: 1) I hold no official post, 2) I’m generally an extremist-minded element. 1. Political wrangling with the bloody regime begins over the President’s visit (I know nothing about that, so I won’t comment). 2. The bloody regime says: the President is coming. 3. The Nazgûl representatives of the Presidential Administration arrive and inspect whether there is anything in the region worthy of His August gaze. They say: this is crap, this is uninteresting, this is lousy, this is lively, this is original. They draw up a list of sites to be visited. 4. Then the FSO people (Federal Protective Service) arrive. They inspect the sites. Anything that does not meet their special requirements is rejected. 5. A final list is drawn up. 6. Then the travel route is determined: the main one and backup routes. Supposedly, no one knows the final route until the very last moment. Though in practice everyone understands that the motorcade will take the main route, and that is why whitewashing/painting and other embellishments of reality are carried out along it. 7. And then (attention) the FSO states clearly and plainly: we have the following requirements. 1. Cut down all bushes along the route, 2. shave down all speed bumps, 3. weld shut any manholes that are level with the asphalt, 4. pave over any manholes that are below asphalt level, 5. pave over railroad crossings. And that’s it. After that, the order is passed on to municipal services (city and regional), and they cut, weld, and pave things over. Is it idiotic? It is idiotic. Part of the general idiocy staged by every kind of special service and non-special service. The FSO, the Interior Ministry, the FSB (Federal Security Service), the Emergency Situations Ministry, firefighters, sanitary-epidemiological inspectors, commissions, customs officers, border guards—all these endless supervisory and control bodies. Could they have avoided paving over this crossing? Yes. That would have meant failing to comply with an FSO directive, and then Medved (a colloquial reference to Dmitry Medvedev) would not have come to Vyatka (the historical name of Kirov). And now, fair-minded critics, answer this question: if you yourselves were in Governor N. Yu. Belykh’s place, would you refuse to comply with an FSO demand (absurd, of course) if that automatically made it impossible for the President to visit your region? Let me note that the President brings money for the region, which, even though it will all be stolen by officials at every level, will be spent for the benefit of the residents. So, what decision do you make? P.S. This is what that crossing looks like now. Photo from the website of the newspaper Vyatsky Observer.