Sometimes it feels like they’re just trolling all of us. How else can you explain this deliberate arrogance and rudeness? We keep writing about purchases of expensive cars (our latest posts on the subject: 1, 2, 3). Often officials get scared and cancel the orders; often they pretend not to notice the scandal and go ahead with them anyway. And every so often they seem to do something like this on purpose: "It’s boring out here in our faraway region without any attention from Moscow, so write about us too. We’re just as brazen and out of control, keeping up with all the latest trends in government". Take, for example, Astrakhan Region Governor Alexander Zhilkin. He seemed like a decent enough guy. He’s got a LiveJournal too. And a Twitter account. I spoke with him when I came to Astrakhan during Oleg Shein’s hunger strike. We talked for two and a half hours. "Yeah, damn it, Lyokha, we understand everything," "You write about them, but I could write things about them myself that would..." and so on. And San Sanych Zhilkin really didn’t strike me as the kind of person prone to showing off or indulging in dubious theatrics. But then he went and did this. First:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4704443 Second:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4707836 A government procurement order for not one but two Mercedes cars, priced at 5.5 million and 6.2 million rubles (about $180,000 and $200,000 at the time)? In Astrakhan? Maybe Governor Zhilkin accidentally thought he was the governor of Monaco rather than Astrakhan Region. I remember driving over the bridge across the Volga, which has a great view of the new Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theater building, and trying to take a picture of it. I couldn’t — the car was shaking so much that the theater kept slipping out of frame. The road surface on that bridge really looks like it was bombed. All those BlueEFFICIENCY models are going to look a bit odd on potholes like that. So what do we do about all this? I’m tired of just writing about it. Of course, we’ll file all the proper official complaints, but that’s not enough. My soul demands something more. So here’s what we’ve decided: to combine Rospil and DMP for a shocking anti-corruption experiment in social media.
Governor Zhilkin wants Mercedes cars, so he buys them. United Russia (the ruling political party) wants Mercedes cars too, so it blocks Rospil’s amendment banning government procurement of such cars. Putin wants Mercedes cars and rigged elections in his favor, so he lets United Russia and the governors waste and steal our money in exchange for loyalty. And Astrakhan’s pensioners want the truth — the truth they won’t hear on Channel One (Russia’s main state TV channel). We’ll bring that truth right into their apartment buildings. So here it is: Sasha-Mercedes. http://sasha-mercedes.mashina.org/ This little blog gets about 12,000 visitors from Astrakhan every month. About 5,000 people came out to the anti-election-fraud rally in April.
http://youtu.be/rOP8gZMDnKc We’ve got people on the ground in Astrakhan. I call on all Astrakhan residents to help us — and themselves — by distributing this leaflet, secretly prepared by Governor Zhilkin and United Russia, which can be easily and conveniently downloaded and printed in the proper format from this website.
Just stick it up in the elevator or the entryway. Drop it into mailboxes. For the especially dedicated, as a coup de grâce, we suggest distributing it together with this regional law:
During my April trip to Astrakhan, I made a lot of friends there — from students we went to campaign to at their universities to minibus drivers whose strike we came to support. Don’t be lazy, guys. A leaflet in an apartment entryway will be read by five people a day. A leaflet on a pole — 15. A leaflet in a minibus — 150 a day. Distributing 20,000 to 30,000 leaflets over a couple of weeks is a piece of cake. And in a city as small as Astrakhan, that means absolutely everyone will know about these wonderful Mercedes cars. If you have friends or relatives in Astrakhan Region, please send them this post or a direct link to http://sasha-mercedes.mashina.org/ And then we’ll see how well this works, and whether something like this can be used in every case of outrageously luxurious purchases at public expense. Download. Print. Distribute.. So those crooks and thieves from United Russia know that we’ll get to them even across the wide expanses of our native Astrakhan land. Update: They’re also buying a BMW for 4.4 million rubles (about $145,000 at the time). We missed that one: http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=4721521