The decision to confer an honorary title on Sergei Poluektov was made by a majority vote with one abstention, but in fact only 14 out of 23 deputies were present at the City Council meeting when considering the issue
photo from Zebra TV archive
Sergei Poluektov, with the light hand of half of the deputies of the Vladimir City Council, received the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Vladimir.” The decision was made by majority vote. Let us note that at the moment there are 23 deputies on the City Council (Alexei Metelkin and Alexander Zakharov were elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2023), at the April meeting there were first 16, then 14 deputies. The decision to award Poluektov an honorary title was approved by 13 people’s representatives, one abstained, which is a rare occurrence for the Council of the current convocation, which consists 100% of United Russia members.
The petition to confer an honorary title on Sergei Poluektov was put forward by the Vladimir regional branch of the All-Russian public organization “Union of Pensioners of Russia” – this is the organization that Poluektov heads. And there is nothing strange in this: according to the provisions on conferring an honorary title, the nomination is carried out by a meeting of members of the team of the potential recipient of the award. Military pensioner Poluektov could just as easily be nominated for the title “Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation.” And it’s up to the authorities whether to support the initiative or not.
The city administration reported that the package of documents submitted to assign Poluektov the status of an honorary citizen of the city of Vladimir complies with the requirements, and according to the procedure, the petition was considered at a meeting of the Awards Commission of the Vladimir city administration, where it was decided to recommend that the petition be granted and Poluektov be awarded an honorary title.
“To award the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Vladimir” to Sergei Sergeevich Poluektov, chairman of the Vladimir regional branch of the All-Russian public organization “Union of Pensioners of Russia” for many years of labor and social activity and great personal contribution to improving the standard of living of pensioners – residents of the city of Vladimir,” – indicated in the decision of the Vladimir City Council.
Regarding the “great personal contribution to improving the standard of living of pensioners,” it is worth noting that in the summer of 2018, when a wave of protests against the pension reform swept across the country, Poluektov spoke out in support of it.
What made Sergei Poluektov famous was a story 15 years ago, when he led pensioners, dissatisfied with restrictions on travel benefits, to the square in front of the White House on Oktyabrsky Avenue, where at that moment an event was taking place with the participation of Governor Nikolai Vinogradov. Poluektov took an active part in the conflict between the communist Vinogradov and United Russia. Vinogradov, having heard dissatisfied exclamations from the square, spoke in the spirit that, as a rule, at the head of a column of sheep led to the slaughter, a provocateur goat always proudly marches. This incident was widely covered in the press; the main media profit went to Poluektov, who for a long time reminded the public that it was him who Vinogradov called a “goat provocateur.”
The editors of Zebra TV could not remember any other services of Poluektov to the city of Vladimir.
At the City Council meeting, the only one who had questions was deputy Dmitry Chizhov. He subsequently abstained during voting:
“As far as I remember, the title “Honorary Citizen” is awarded for some outstanding achievements. To what extent is this organization’s activity – of course, Sergei Sergeevich is a respected person – but, it seems to me, this does not quite correspond to the title of “Honorary Citizen of the City”? Looking at the Honor Board that hangs at the entrance to the administration, we have many respected people. I have certain doubts. By [председателю Совета народных депутатов города Владимира в 1997-2005 годах] Malakhova Margarita Anatolyevna – she is a person who really did a lot for the city, simply doing her job in the Union of Veterans. [По Полуэктову] I just have doubts, I want you to explain the position of the committee that considered this decision.”
The head of the department of organizational work and municipal service of the city administration, Alexei Starostin, noted that the characteristics, merits and awards of Sergei Poluektov were studied in detail by the Awards Commission and were perceived as meeting the requirements for conferring an honorary title. The City Council Committee also considered and studied this issue and decided to consider the issue at the Council.
Chairman of the Vladimir City Council Nikolai Tolbukhin retorted that the decision was timely, so as not to single out truly worthy people only after their death:
“Sergei Sergeevich does a lot of work with older people, which is important, he involves them in active social activities, an active social life. He also does a lot of patriotic work. He works not only in Vladimir, but also in the region. We often begin to evaluate people with some delay. Here Margarita Malakhova is an honored person, but how do we assign her the building of “Honorary Citizen”? Posthumously. It’s probably right that we evaluate people’s merits on time.”
We note that for awarding the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Vladimir” to Margarita Anatolyevna Malakhova (posthumously) “for many years of labor and social activity for the benefit of the city of Vladimir, a great personal contribution to the development of the economy and local government of the city, as well as patriotic education, enlightenment and education of the younger generation” Deputies of the Vladimir City Council who were present at the meeting voted unanimously – 14 votes in favor.
Let us note that Sergei Poluektov became the fifth living Honorary Citizen of the city of Vladimir, a title awarded since 1967. At the moment, Alisa Ivanovna Aksenova, Pavel Viktorovich Kuznetsov, Eduard Mitrofanovich Markin and Klavdiya Vasilievna Mukhina have high ranks during their lifetime. In the spring of 2023, deputies of the Vladimir City Council approved a significant increase in payments to citizens who have the honorary title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Vladimir”: the amount increased 4 times – from 2 to 8 thousand rubles monthly.
Let us add that among the townspeople interviewed by the editors, the figure of Sergei Poluektov as an “Honorary Citizen” caused either bewilderment, doubt, or the question of who he is.
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