Former head of Chuvashia Mikhail Ignatiev filed with the Supreme Court of Russialawsuit to President Vladimir Putin, having considered his dismissal in January with the wording “in connection with the loss of confidence” illegal. The day after the media reported on the lawsuit registered on May 20, it became known that Ignatiev is in the hospital in serious condition with bilateral pneumonia.
Ignatiev led Chuvashia since 2010, he was appointed to the post of president of the republic on the proposal of the then president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. In June 2015, he voluntarily resigned, and three months later won the election of the head of the republic, gaining 65.54 percent of the vote. The opposition noted numerous violations during the vote.
In January 2020, Ignatiev was fired by Vladimir Putin. This happened after two public scandals involving the politician. First, at a ceremony in Cheboksary dedicated to the Day of Russian and Chuvash press, he called for the “wetting” of journalists and bloggers who criticize the authorities. Then a video got into the network, where he, handing the keys to new fire trucks to employees of the regional Emergencies Ministry units, made an employee jump up behind them. Ignatiev not only lost the post of head of the republic, but was also expelled from the United Russia party.
The day after the media reported on Ignatiev’s lawsuit against Putin, it became known about his hospitalization in St. Petersburg. According to the correspondent of the Idel website. Realia Zoya Simbirskaya citing a source close to the environment of the ex-head of Chuvashia, Ignatiev is in serious condition.
– Doctors make disappointing predictions. As for the lawsuit, this is not a political move or a game of “fool”, as the media write. This is a step of despair for a man who has nothing to lose. He was left without a post and without any social guarantees of the financial plan that he needed, given his state of health. Mikhail Ignatiev really believes that he was unjustly removed from his post. He was not seen in corruption, which cannot be said, to be objective, about his environment. There are no questions to him from the “law”. All these years, being the leader of Chuvashia, he believes that he “plowed” for the republic and the presidential administration, to put it mildly, treated him undeservedly, shared the source.
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–Alexander Kynev
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Political scientist Alexander Kynev notes that Mikhail Ignatiev’s lawsuit against the president is legally justified and demonstrates the current state of the power vertical that has been built for so long by Vladimir Putin. Ignatiev became the first head of the region in Russia since 1993, appealing his dismissal through the courts.
– From the side it seems that the episode with the keys, when Ignatiev humiliated an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, simply did not leave Putin a choice – the regional leader who made the officer jump up was so negatively perceived by public opinion. At the same time, Ignatiev files a lawsuit against the omnipotent Vladimir Putin. What made him decide on the seemingly desperate step again?
– This is a symbolic gesture that shows the attitude of not only Ignatiev, but also very many inside the vertical to the principle by which it is structured. In fact, we have long had a system of double standards when strict laws exist, but they are implemented selectively. They apply only to those who violate some unwritten rules. And then they become scapegoats, and on everyone else who does the same, their eyes are closed. And we are used to it. As for the story of the dismissal of Ignatiev, we have many who commit different stupid things.
The argument about keys does not work in any way, because there are tons of other examples when, quite calmly, the person who did this worked on
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You don’t have to go far, look at the recent public statement of Mr. Artamonov, the new governor of the Lipetsk region, about ticks, about students who must earn more so as not to complain about high prices. Recent leaks about the fact that you need to correct statistics on the incidence rate and so on. No one is firing Artamonov. And we have a huge number of such examples when the fined officials were not fired. The argument about keys does not work in any way, because there are tons of other examples when, quite calmly, the person who did this worked further. This is not the question, the question is that in the case of Mr. Mikhail Ignatiev, the procedure was violated, since dismissal for loss of confidence involves the initiation of criminal cases. Another question is that no one has argued much about this in the past. The same Luzhkov was dismissed in 2010, and there was no criminal case, although all the other dismissals of the governors after losing confidence in criminal cases were still accompanied. In the case of Ignatiev there is nothing to do, the man was fired, and he thus expressed his indignation. And, besides, there is also an element of personal characteristics, the character of Ignatiev. He is a stubborn man.
In any case, this is a very revealing story. I want to remind you that in another political era, during the time of Yeltsin, there were cases when laid-off officials filed complaints with the courts against the president. There are two most famous cases. The first case – in the Lipetsk region there was such a governor Kuptsov, who filed a lawsuit against Yeltsin for illegal dismissal, for violation of the procedure. He sued for a long time, in the end he won the trial. However, by that time a new governor had already been elected, and for this reason he was not reinstated, as his term of office had expired. But he was paid all the required salaries for the time when he did not work due to the illegal dismissal from the post of head of administration. There was a story with the dismissal of Yuri Nozhikov in Irkutsk and Vitaliy Mukha in Novosibirsk on the same day, and the president canceled both decrees. Mukha even called Chernomyrdin with an apology. It is impossible to imagine this within the framework of the current system. Yeltsin was a man who was capable of acting, and this did not hurt his authority, he was in this sense a different personality than Vladimir Putin.
The vertical is not so strong, and the president is not so macho
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Within the framework of the current system, primitive army schemes work, and no others. There was a well-known story of many years of contesting the presidential decree on the dismissal of Vladivostok Mayor Viktor Cherepkov. Let me remind you that Yeltsin appointed not only governors until 1996, but also the heads of regional centers and regional centers. This was before the general electoral system was introduced. And the authorities also sued Cherepkov. So in the 1990s, all this was. Now we are unaccustomed to this.
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–Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Ignatiev
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In this case, Ignatiev’s personality is not important, there are no angels there, in this governor’s corps and in power. The question is that the system of circular silence within the government is collapsing before our eyes with all its previous images and stereotypes, within which it worked: about bonds, about a strong vertical, and so on. The vertical is not so strong, and the president is not so macho. Those who inside for many years portrayed the service faithfully, as we now see, also, in general, have completely different views on many things. And they demonstrate this after they have been left behind. So this suggests that the rigidity of all this vertical is largely only visible.
The day after the president, in the fight against coronavirus, was forced, for some other reasons, to delegate part of his powers to the governors, we see that he actually became a hostage. And governors, by prolonging or not extending quarantine measures, de facto limit the political fairway to the president. Including – from the point of view of voting on the same approval of amendments to the Constitution. Because if Moscow, for example, lifted quarantine restrictions, the vote could have taken place in June, and Mr. Sobyanin, with his restrictions, thwarted the holding of the 24th vote by Putin. This is quite obvious. In this sense, the president is today the hostage of the person whom he appointed, and he cannot fire them, because they act within the framework of the powers that he gave them. That is, he then must admit that he himself was wrong. But he cannot do this. So in this sense, the current vertical has driven itself into a corner in which it is now located.
– Do you think Ignatiev acts alone or does he rely on someone after all?
– I think that Ignatiev is such a Maverick, I think he is a loner.
– How will the Kremlin react to this lawsuit? The Supreme Court nevertheless accepted it for consideration, albeit partially.
– The smartest will be refused on formal grounds. And the most stupid would be to arrange force harassment of Ignatieff, because tough force pressure on a person after filing a lawsuit would look as ugly as pettiness. Pettiness – in the eyes of people is absolutely negative quality, which does not cause any sympathy for power. Therefore, if the government wants to continue to cause the accumulation of negative emotions, it can take the path of such petty revenge – to search Ignatiev, initiate criminal proceedings, and so on. If she’s wiser, then on formal grounds she will refuse to consider the claim and will try not to recall this story publicly, Alexander Kynev believes.
The meeting in the Supreme Court on the suit of Mikhail Ignatiev is scheduled for June 30. Whether it will be tolerated due to the plaintiff’s illness is still unknown.
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