We continue our investigative experiments with using the Good Machine of Truth against those guys in cases where RosPil is no longer helping.
It produced an interesting result in Astrakhan, so now let’s try a difficult case.
We have a regular client: a brazen crook, schemer, and falsifier, Chelyabinsk Region Governor M. Yurevich.
What sets him apart from the usual United Russia crooks is that he is outrageously shameless and loves the high life.
He can certainly afford that high life himself—he has money to spare: the guy owns the Makfa pasta factory.
But as they say, why pay out of your own pocket if the budget can pay for you? And the Chelyabinsk budget is working overtime on his behalf.
Yurevich drives RosPil up the wall with his obsession with security.
As soon as he took office, a special amendment to the regional law was adopted that removed any restrictions on who could “guard the governor”.
And off it went:
18. 07. 11.
25 million rubles
07. 11. 11. 28 million rubles
11. 11. 11. 27.6 million rubles
14. 11. 11. 61.7 million rubles
All the tenders were won by a private security company called "Argument." Naturally, we declared war on him over these insane expenses and these dubious tenders. So far unsuccessfully—all the Chelyabinsk Region “law enforcement” agencies have joined forces to defend Yurevich’s right to hire private security at the taxpayers’ expense. Although, for example, in Vladivostok, the city’s mayor faced a criminal case for the same kind of stunt. Quite an interesting situation. Even so, we expected that after all the publicity and numerous complaints, Yurevich would behave a little more modestly. But no such luck: Another 14.8 million rubles.
Hello! Are we talking about Chelyabinsk and its governor? Or has some Medellín drug lord arrived in the Gaza Strip? What exactly is going on in Chelyabinsk that the governor cannot be protected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as happens in every other region? Chechnya is far away, after all. No Wahhabis. No Primorye partisans (not yet, though they’ll clearly appear if this is how budget money is treated). So what are we supposed to do about Monsieur Yurevich? Obviously, something has to be done. We made a simple estimate here: if you add up the cost of his security and the helicopter, also bought at the taxpayers’ expense (of course, at 20 million rubles above market price) and costing the region 55 million rubles a year to operate, it turns out that Yurevich has spent (ATTENTION) 5**53,009,179 **rubles from the budget on these toys alone. Yes, that’s not a mistake. Half a billion rubles. That is, incidentally, 0.57% of the region’s total budget revenues for 2012. Given Governor Yurevich’s previous accomplishments, which include: intimidation and bribery aimed at rigging elections; purchasing cable porn channels at the taxpayers’ expense; spending budget funds so that search engines would stop showing information about man-made disasters in the region among the top results; we decided to unleash the Good Machine of Truth on Yurevich. And here we will need the help of residents of Chelyabinsk and the Chelyabinsk Region. Google Analytics shows that Chelyabinsk consistently ranks 9th among the cities whose residents read this little blog, so we are very much hoping to reach concerned and not-too-lazy locals. We already had Sasha-Mercedes . Now meet Misha the Helicopter: http://misha-vertolet.mashina.org/
The scheme is standard, tested many times. If you live in the Chelyabinsk Region and do not agree with the governor treating your money so casually, then: Go to the website. Download Yurevich’s report on his work. Print it out. Put copies in the mailboxes in your apartment building and post them in the elevator. And do that for a week straight. A couple thousand active people can inform the city of Chelyabinsk—with its population of over 1 million—about that cherished half-billion quickly enough. Internet + activism + word of mouth = a nuclear combination. As usual, we would be very grateful if you sent this post to your friends/relatives/acquaintances in the Chelyabinsk Region. Help out, citizens. Yurevich certainly won’t tell the truth about himself. http://misha-vertolet.mashina.org/