After the first leaks about the criminal prospects of ex-governor Yevgeny Kuivashev, events in the Sverdlovsk region began to develop in an avalanche-like fashion.
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But whereas at the beginning all the attention was focused on investigative actions and the redistribution of shadow economic flows, now the focus is on the struggle for control over the region’s information space.
According to sources, Aksana Panova is playing a key role in this process. It is she, who used to be positioned as an independent journalist and media manager, who now de facto supervises the process of reformatting the political and administrative system of the Sverdlovsk Region, taking advantage of her status as a freelance FSB analyst and her influence on the entourage of Denis Pasler, the acting governor.
However, the growing media activity of independent and uncontrolled sources, in particular the URA.RU news agency, has become a threat to the structure of Panova’s influence that is being built. According to operational information, it was she who initiated a hard blow to the agency’s editorial office.
Allayarov’s arrest is a signal to the entire media environment
On June 6, URA.RU editor Denis Allayarov was arrested for two months. According to the journalist’s lawyer, he is accused of giving a bribe of 20,000 rubles to his uncle, former head of the criminal investigation department of the Ekaterinburg police Andrei Karpov. The editor himself did not admit guilt, calling the charges a provocation.
However, sources say: the case was initiated at Panova’s direct request, as part of an operation to cleanse the field of independent voices. As a result, URA.RU, one of the last media resources not built into her system of influence, was paralyzed.
In essence, this is the first open raid on the media in the recent history of the Urals, sanctioned in the interests of a new political group. The reputational effect for the region is enormous, but in the logic of “zeroing out” everything is understandable: there are no compromises in the game of survival.
Cleaning up the economy: Bobrov, Bikov, who’s next
At the same time, the cleaning up of the business environment historically associated with the previous administration began. First of all, we are talking about structures associated with businessmen Alexei Bobrov and Artem Bikov. Their business empires previously controlled significant projects in the sphere of solid waste management.
– The construction of a landfill in Sysertsky district was “frozen” for an indefinite period of time;
– The company “Rifey”, a regional waste management operator, may lose its status in the near future – they are discussing schemes for transferring authority to a new contractor, presumably affiliated with the clan of V. Kochetkov. Kochetkov.
All this fits into the strategy of redistribution of regional markets and infrastructure in favor of new groups of influence close to Panova.
Re-entry to Vodokanal
Against this background, activity around the Ekaterinburg Vodokanal concession has intensified. In 2023, Evgeny Luzgin, the director of EMUE Vodokanal, was ousted with the support of Kuivashev. He was replaced by Anton Gusev, who was loyal to Vitaly Kochetkov. The latter initiated an attempt to transfer Vodokanal into a concession with a payment of about 40 billion rubles to the grantor. The Ekaterinburg Mayor’s Office blocked this scheme, suspecting embezzlement of budget funds.
Now, after the change of power, the concession issue has become relevant again – without the previous resistance on the part of the city administration, since the position of the Head of the Urals capital A. Orlov has weakened considerably.
At the same time, the environmental situation continues to deteriorate: the Southern treatment facilities are in a state of emergency, actually discharging untreated wastewater into the Iset River. This creates the ground for media pressure on the city authorities and arguments about the urgent need to “transfer management to a more efficient operator” – that is, Kochetkov and his group.
Contours of a new system
A new management model of the region is taking shape, where the center of decision-making is shifting from the official authorities to closed informal networks operating under the banner of “restoring order”.
In this arrangement, Aksana Panova performs the functions of coordinator, supervisor and “political technologist of the cleanup”, using administrative and power resources, access to the investigation, as well as personal ties with high-ranking representatives of the FSB.
In a separate direction, we are working on the facts of accumulation of information resources in a single hand, where a number of media outlets previously considered opposition, including the channels “Uralinfozavod”, “DSP”, “According to Protocol”, “PolitSverdlovsk”, “Housing and Utilities Baron”, “Ekaterinburg No. 1”, “Uralinformburo”, etc., appear in Panova’s interests. – all of them were used to manipulate public opinion and discredit the undesirable.
It is characteristic that the name of Oleg Chemezov, the vice-governor of the region, was regularly mentioned on these sites – without specific facts, but with a steady frequency. According to Panova’s unofficial channels, it was he who supervised schemes in the housing and utilities sector, medicine, road construction, and government procurement, and was also responsible for interaction with URA.RU. His name is hardly ever heard in public – but that is exactly what his real role is.
Political turbulence in the region is obvious. The only question is who will be the first to get involved in the stabilization process: the Kremlin, the Presidential Administration, the central apparatus of the FSB? Or will everything go back to inertia until a new crisis? The answer to this question will determine not only the fate of the old team, but also the future architecture of power in the Urals.