Ah, what a wonderful story on Malgin’s LiveJournal blog.
Sergei Bozhenov, one of the chief crooks and vote-riggers from the party of crooks and thieves (a common opposition nickname for United Russia), was recently appointed governor of the Volgograd Region as a reward for his expertise in election fraud at his previous job in Astrakhan. Oleg Shein, who is on hunger strike and was stripped of the mayor’s office despite winning the election, is starving himself precisely because of the superb work of Bozhenov’s system. So there you have it: Governor Bozhenov, that servant of the people, decided to take a break after his successful fabrications in the presidential election. To celebrate his birthday in style. In Italy. In the company of another 46 people. Deputies from the regional duma and members of the regional government. With their families. Naturally, they didn’t fly like suckers—they flew in style, on a chartered Bombardier CRJ 200.
Here, you can watch these officials—worn out from caring so much about the people—boarding their flight to Pisa:
http://youtu.be/Wi02npNJdg4 The cars alone say a lot. It’s hard to imagine this kind of dolce vita going on in Volgograd, where wages are the lowest among Russia’s million-plus cities; the roads look like this; the city posts record-setting figures in socio-economic decline. Officially, the whole thing is being called a "vi*sit by a delegation of regional parliament deputies to Italy."* Malgin rightly notes that the timing chosen for this official visit is curious: it’s Easter in Europe, and even Monday is a public holiday in Italy. It will be rather difficult for the deputies and the governor to hold a "series of meetings with government officials to exchange experience in various fields." The version according to which these valiant United Russia members from Volgograd went to lovely Italy to celebrate Governor Bozhenov’s birthday (April 8) and regional government chairman Konstantin Khramov’s birthday (April 6) looks far more convincing: To*morrow’s program includes a banquet for the birthday of regional government chairman Konstantin Khramov, and on Sunday a banquet for the birthday of Volgograd Region governor Sergei Bozhenov. *A good related link: http://v102.ru/news/32760.html On the state procurement website, I was unable to find any information indicating that any Volgograd Region government customer had ordered air transport for this trip. So who paid for the plane? If it was the budget, then this is abuse of office and misuse of public funds. Bozhenov and Co. should be driven out of public service. If it was businessman friends, then it is an obvious bribe. Bozhenov and Co. should be sent to the defendants’ bench. We are filing a complaint with the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office. Let them disclose the details of this Italian-Volgograd banquet.
We will also write separately to the man who appointed the swindler Bozhenov governor while simultaneously shrieking about fighting corruption. If he appointed him, then he bears responsibility for him and for his Italian birthday parties. We’ll have a laugh over the reply later. P.S. If you have any additional information on this subject, send it in. Update. About the habits of Volgograd officials and political consultants. MEGA-UPDATE from Malgin: These guys are not shy at all. I searched all over Italy for the crowd of Volgograd officials who had flown to Italy on a special flight to celebrate Governor S. Bozhenov’s birthday, and it turned out they were right under my nose—in the very same five-star Grand Hotel & La Pace in Montecatini Terme where the “Russian tsarina” Svetlana Medvedeva (wife of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev) had stayed a month earlier. And the governor checked specifically into her presidential suite. The other fifty or so freeloaders were put up in the same hotel too, mostly in suites. The NTV program “Central Television” called just now and asked whether I had found the thug crowd. I immediately said that I was taking part in the boycott of NTV and therefore had no intention of commenting, but then I gave them the hotel’s phone number after all, which I regret. Still, I doubt they’ll get anything out of the hotel—there are Russians sitting at reception there, and just as in the Medvedeva case, they brush off the Russian press. Even so, I learned from friends that the crowd checked in yesterday evening and spent the night drinking heavily. To the surprise of the hotel staff, they had brought all the alcohol with them: crates of booze were unloaded from the bus. That is, of course, very Russian indeed—to come to Italy with your own liquor. Well done, keep it up. This evening they face another blow to the liver: a banquet for the 45th birthday of regional government chairman Konstantin Khramov. And the day after tomorrow, by a happy coincidence, the officials will be celebrating Governor Bozhenov’s birthday. Among those attending this regional corporate junket are almost the entire regional government, regional duma speaker Vladimir Yefimov, his first deputy Vitaly Likhachyov, deputies Tsybizova, Titov, Lunyov, Popkov, Latyshevskaya, Biryukov, and others. Members of the regional government are represented almost in full as well. They arrived in Montecatini with their wives. http://avmalgin.livejournal.com/3017849.html