St. Petersburg residents are being “warmed up” before Beglov’s report with the shaking Mariinsky Theater and budget violations

While Governor Alexander Beglov is preparing for an important report for him at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, it seems that the audience in St. Petersburg has begun to warm up. Strange statements are already being heard from the cultural sphere, far from praise, and the Chamber of Control and Accounts, right before the mayor’s speech, shares figures on how much budget funds “flowed away” for no reason.

Last Wednesday, the leadership of the Chamber of Control and Accounts reported to the deputies of the Legislative Assembly on the results of 2023. The conclusions of Konstantin Zheludkov are interesting. Over the past year, auditors found 10 thousand violations. For comparison, in 2020 there were 3.3 thousand of them. In St. Petersburg, for example, tenders were found whose cost was inflated by 325%. And the head of the KSP Zheludkov recognized landscaping as one of the most ineffective and corrupt areas.

It is interesting that Zheludkov’s data, demonstrating a multiple increase in violations, does not seem to have caused a wide response in the media. But the KSP report attracted special attention from the media members of the National Media Group, which is close to Rossiya Bank shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk. Publications, for example, place special emphasis on the fact that after inspections by the PSC, more than 200 officials were brought to disciplinary liability.

At the same time, last year, as reported by Moika78, the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Alexander Belsky, expressed skepticism about the loud statements of the PCB about multi-billion-dollar violations. Nevertheless, even the very fact of any complaints from auditors can be etched in the memory of activists.

On April 25, the leadership of St. Petersburg was remembered through the mouth of the head of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters Valery Gergiev and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. From exclusively cultural reasoning, the conductor suddenly switched sharply to criticism. Gergiev even directly stated that he “comes into conflict with the city leadership in an interview.” The reason is the long-suffering St. Petersburg metro, which “shakes” the walls of the historical stage of the Mariinsky Theater.

“About nine months ago, we began to experience great excitement after the thoughtless, stupid, not to say sabotage policy of the city leadership, which gave permission to build a metro directly under the Mariinsky Theater, made itself felt. Although we had a chance to do without it. And the previous city leadership gave me every guarantee that nothing would be drilled under the theater. But no, our building shakes every day,”

– said Gergiev.

At the same time, the last year of Beglov’s work was accompanied by attention-grabbing statements addressed to Gazprom. First, in September 2023, the governor, speaking at the Legislative Assembly, complained that part of the infrastructure for the monopoly’s employees had to be built at the expense of the city budget (at that time we were talking about an interchange near the Lakhta Center), and also that the company did not bring a special contribution to the treasury.

“To date, we have not received the corresponding budget revenues, but nevertheless we are fulfilling our obligations towards Gazprom. If for everyone Gazprom is manna from heaven, then for the city it is a big expense,”

– he stated in the Legislative Assembly.

In 2024, in one of his speeches to employees of the St. Petersburg enterprise, Beglov returned to this topic, saying that Gazprom had little to do with the trillion-dollar budget. The head of the state corporation, Alexei Miller, has not yet responded to the governor in any way, but it is possible that the flash mob launched by Gergiev may be picked up.

You can already guess what Beglov himself will talk about in his report. It is possible that the mayor will remember the HSR to Moscow (it will only be built by 2028), the three metro stations that will open this year, and the new bridge across the Neva. He will probably talk about supporting SVO participants and eliminating the social infrastructure deficit. But it can also be assumed that activists and St. Petersburg business, listening to the mayor’s speech, will have something completely different in mind. They can just remember the latest PCB statistics. On this occasion, it’s not a sin to remember snow in May.

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