My congratulations to Maria Gaidar (m_gaidar), who was confirmed today by the Legislative Assembly of Kirov Region. She is now no longer acting deputy chair of the regional government, but simply deputy chair. Not a single vote against. Which is no sensation either to me or to anyone else who actually knew the real situation surrounding the confirmation. It was amusing to read the analytical exercises of various political scientists and commentators (local and federal) about mysterious intrigues, alignments, elite conflicts, and so on. Once again I was convinced that all this "verified information from a source" is just made up out of thin air. I am sure that Maria Gaidar will be one of the best people in the government, if only because she does not indulge in officials’ favorite sport—creeping attempts to expand the scope of their own authority—but simply does what a person in public service is supposed to do. Since this scheming about schemes devours 90% of the time and effort of our "servants of the people," Gaidar simply has far more capacity in that sense. P.S. At first I wanted to write, "I’m not surprised the vote went through, because only I and the regional governor know how much money was delivered to each deputy through the Kirov Region Governor’s Initiative Support Fund," but lately people have been a bit slow on the uptake. So let me say this in all seriousness: the deputies voted for free, ha ha ha—and you’re fools if you believed it.
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