Interview with acting Chairman of the Committee on Press and Interaction with the Media of the Government of St. Petersburg Sergei Serezleev.
– Sergey Grigorievich, what was this year like for you?
– Summing up the preliminary results of the Year of Culture, we can say that our writers were not ignored. The “Writer's House”, under the patronage of the government of St. Petersburg, was actively working, where comfortable conditions were created for our writing community. We held many significant cultural events together. I admit, it is somewhat awkward for me to assess the work of the committee, but let me give some facts.
The Press Committee actively supports many book publishing projects. This year, more than 20 million rubles have been allocated for them from the city budget. At the same time, the decision to issue subsidies is made not by the Press Committee, but by the Publishing Council, which, along with famous writers, also includes book publishing professionals.
We definitely take into account the opinions of the Publishing Council when allocating subsidies. It should also be noted that the main writers' unions themselves selected the most significant manuscripts and offered them for consideration. We also, as an experiment, included in a special block series of 10 books the works of our most famous and recognizable writers about St. Petersburg in order to promote their books to readers.
Professionally made offers, competent logistics and, if you like, advertising of these books with relatively small circulations made it possible to arouse significant reader interest in them.
Also, a few months ago, with our assistance, agreements were signed between writers' unions and a book distribution company. It's no secret that nowadays it is very difficult for a writer to make his book available to many. Today our writers have such an opportunity.
In December of this year we plan to begin publishing books in the new book project “Writers at War. Writers about war." Within its framework and in the light of preparations for the celebration of the Great Victory, we want, so to speak, to “bring generations closer together,” i.e. try to “connect” writers of the older generation and current young writers writing about the war.
We are doing all these projects now with an eye to the upcoming, X-anniversary International Book Fair, which will take place in May next year. This year we held the IX Salon, making the Winter Stadium, so to speak, a meeting place for writers and readers. We tried to move away from “just selling books”; We actively collaborated with the Culture Committee, and together we managed to make this salon a cultural phenomenon. Along Kharms Street, visitors found themselves in open areas where our poets read poetry. We revived book sales, where anyone could sell their books. At first, not everyone even believed that there could be bookstores, and for the first two days there were few people in these “huts.” And then people tried this “book dish”, the information spread, and people started coming.
Another innovation of this salon was the placement of portraits and titles of books of our writers on city outdoor advertising stands. And advertising, you see, is a powerful information resource.
And, of course, free entry to all salon events.
As a result, more than 170,000 visitors. The “Unknown Petersburg” competition that we hold on the initiative of Governor G. S. Poltavchenko together with our writers also deserves mention.
In 2013, 1,600 applications were sent to this competition, and this year there are already more than 2,000. The Publishing Council will have to roll up its sleeves. It should be noted that the winners of the competition have already been rewarded (including financially), and works by non-members of writers' unions will be included in the book being prepared for publication. We believe that we are finishing the Year of Culture with dignity.
– Do you intend to continue this practice next year?
- Undoubtedly. In 2015, we plan to allocate at least 20 million rubles for book publishing projects. Writers already know about this and are preparing manuscripts for future books.
I have already spoken above about a block series of books about St. Petersburg. So: this experiment was considered successful, and next year we plan to increase the number of books in this series to 15.
A few words about plans to prepare for the upcoming international Book Fair. I said that the coming year is a special year for our country, and therefore, after analyzing the work of the last Book Salon, we plan to allocate an entire city block for this event. At the same time, book sales in this quarter will be not only during the salon, but in the period from May to September. There will be 25 “theme stalls” where our leading bookstores will be open rent-free.
Invitations to the anniversary Book Salon have already been sent to all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. At the same time, I am not afraid of these words, we are developing the ideology of the book holiday, that is, we are forming an understanding of the purpose for which we are holding it. People should receive information at the salon that is difficult for them to obtain elsewhere.
In our opinion, the following should be put at the forefront: patriotism, connections between times and generations, love for one’s history and the older generation, as well as the ability to defend one’s point of view.
In order to fulfill our plans, we need to saturate the salon with interesting and significant cultural events. We will invite the best Russian and foreign writers. Currently, with the active support of the governor, we cooperate with many committees of the government of St. Petersburg.
To achieve success, you need a team, an integral organism that has certain goals, objectives and ways to implement them. And, of course, all this is being done for our citizens, and especially for young people.
– The city’s literary community is extremely concerned about the fate of the Writers’ Book Shop and the Komarovo House of Creativity...
– In our city there are quite a lot of business entities with various forms of ownership, carrying out socially significant activities. The Press Committee together with KUGI (City Property Management Committee) provide them with significant benefits. At the same time, control over the implementation of the law according to which these benefits are provided is carried out accordingly. Unfortunately, there are cases when business entities try to cheat and thereby break the law.
On the merits of the question you asked, I can explain the following: our St. Petersburg writers are a very sensitive barometer, they react sharply in the event of even an attempt to violate their legal rights. They contacted the governor about what they considered to be the improper use of retail space in the Writers' Book Shop on Nevsky Prospekt.
We tried to resolve this conflict without resorting to extreme measures. But despite numerous appeals to the business entity and founder (Literary Fund of Russia), the situation did not change for the better. But the most important thing: in the short time it has been in business, LLC “St. Petersburg Bookstore - Club of Writers of the Literary Fund” has managed to create an extremely negative attitude towards itself among the writers.
We were simply offended that the people who run this facility and consider themselves part of the writing community turned out to be deaf to the aspirations and needs of their colleagues in the writing workshop.
As a result, at the request of the writers and the Press Committee, KUGI applied to the court with a request to evict the above-mentioned organization from its occupied premises due to failure to fulfill its obligations. On June 20, 2014, the Arbitration Court of the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (first instance court) made the decision: “To evict the limited liability company “St. Petersburg Bookstore - Club of Writers of the Literary Fund” from non-residential premises at the address: St. Petersburg, emb. . Fontanka River, 29/66, lit. A, room. 3-H.”
As could be expected, the management of the LLC, evicted from its premises by court decision, was in no way satisfied with this state of affairs.
The losing party, in accordance with the established procedure, filed an appeal against the court decision to the Thirteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal (court of second instance). And so on November 19, 2014, the Thirteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Arbitration Court of the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region without change, and the appeal was not satisfied.
I immediately want to stop here all possible fabrications regarding a change in the type of activity of this socially significant object: book trade has been carried out in these areas, and will continue to be carried out. When the legal proceedings were going on, we only said that the legal entity carrying out economic activities did not meet the requirements set by the writing community and city residents.
– How do you see the future fate of the “Writers’ Book Shop”?
– We will actively interact with our “House of Writers”, which, it seems to us, will better understand the aspirations of writers. We have already discussed this issue with them and came to the understanding that this will be both effective and understandable to everyone.
We hope that in the future this cultural site will turn into a place of attraction for the creative intelligentsia, and people walking along Nevsky Prospect will be able to easily stop by and take part in any event held at the Writers’ Book Shop. This will help somewhat reduce the lack of communication that is acutely felt in our society. We must restore historical justice: return this cultural object to the city in the form in which it was once conceived.
– Do you intend to follow the same path with the Komarovo House of Creativity?
– The writing community has already expressed interest in this. But let's not rush. There are legitimate legal procedures, and all of them must be strictly followed.
The most important thing is that we manage to restore the writers’ faith in justice by solving the long-term problems that have accumulated in the Writers’ Book Shop as an example. But I can say one thing with complete confidence: we will not allow our writers to be offended.
The conversation was conducted by Vladimir SHEMSHUCHENKO
Original of this material© "Top Secret", 07/27/2017, Photo: via InterPress.Ru
The muddy waters of St. Petersburg outdoor advertising
Sofia BardinaIn St. Petersburg, scandals surrounding the redistribution of the outdoor advertising market continue unabated. Since 2013, all outdoor advertising in the Northern capital has been in an “illegal situation” - for four years the city authorities have not been able to hold a new competition for the placement of outdoor advertising. In June 2017, the competition was finally announced, and new scandals immediately broke out. This market is supervised by the chairman of the city Committee for Press and Media Relations Sergey Serezleev. The “achievements” of the official and the St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise “City Advertising Placement Center” (St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise “SCRR”) subordinate to him, in my opinion, can become the subject of close study by the Chamber of Control and Accounts and the city prosecutor’s office.
"Contractual" scheme
For those uninitiated in the epic of the St. Petersburg outdoor advertising market, I will briefly describe the history of recent years. In 2013, most outdoor advertising operators' contracts with the city for the placement of advertising media expired. The city had to hold a new competition. But the Press Committee responsible for this and its current head Sergei Serezleev (then still in the role of deputy chairman in charge of the advertising market) prepared the outdoor advertising placement scheme and competition documentation in such a way that they caused a lot of scandals and claims from a variety of regulatory authorities. As a result, the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service canceled the competition in 2014. For three years, the authorities were unable to organize a new competition. Or they didn't want to. As has been written more than once in the media, the work of all operators outside of contractual relations plays into the hands of those who control this work. The authority to conclude contracts with businesses for the placement of outdoor advertising has been transferred to the State Unitary Enterprise “City Advertising Center”. It is completely controlled by the Press Committee and its chairman. After the old contracts with advertisers expired and no new ones appeared, the committee began filing lawsuits en masse for the dismantling of advertising structures. The courts agreed and issued orders for demolition.As a result, city authorities were able to legally demolish almost any advertising structure in St. Petersburg at any time. An excellent way, let’s say, of correction and weeding of the market. As they say, not everyone survived. Famous in the past to the Thaler company, Clear Chanell were quickly and cheaply sold.
It was explained to the rest of the market participants that they could continue to work according to a peculiar scheme: the State Center for Reconstruction and Resource Development issues claims to illegal operators for unjust enrichment, thus they will pay for the use of city property. Of course, everything happened against the backdrop of constant talk that a new competition was about to be announced. And so on for three years.
“Unjust enrichment” is collected from illegal operators, of course, in a claim format. But who and how calculated how much to charge? Did anyone care about the interests of the city treasury? It seems that this was done in a very arbitrary order. Throughout the three years, many operators tried to ask to change rates, simply refuse to pay, and disputed the amounts charged in court. And some were successful. Moreover, it is worth looking at the court materials of the proceedings between the State Center for Reconstruction and Development and market participants specifically on “illegal enrichment.” The courts sometimes rejected the SCRR's claims, and if they satisfied them, they often significantly reduced the required amount.
That is, it turns out that there is no reinforced concrete methodology for calculating how much money the budget should receive from the market, clearly stated in official documents? Judging by the same court decisions, the calculations of the committee and the City Advertising Center are based on Order No. 39-r on changes in the fees for the use of city facilities and territories for the purpose of placing outdoor advertising and information, which was adopted... November 23, 2007. 10 years ago! In 2010 - 2011, some amendments were made to this document, and that’s all since then. During this time, the country has changed, the economy... well, we know where our economy is now. Exchange rates, inflation, changes in the advertising market - it was as if nothing had changed.
Is it really true that in all these years, neither the Chairman of the Press Committee nor the State Center for Reconstruction of the Russian Federation bothered to assess the changes in the economics of the advertising market?
There are suspicions that they did evaluate it, but they were not very happy with the result. This version is indirectly supported by documents from a competition for placement that did not take place in 2014. Having announced the competition by its order, the Committee for Press and Media Relations published, among other things, an estimate of the cost of the right to place advertising structures in the city. This cost is higher than the amounts charged for “unjust enrichment” and which were calculated according to 2007 patterns.
The cost of placing structures from the 2014 competition documents is the result of the work of an independent evaluation commission. These data have been officially published. That is, starting from 2014, the State Center for Reconstruction and Responsibility, when demanding reimbursements from operators, should have been guided by these calculations and charged at an increased cost? But this was not done. Taking into account the fact that each demand amounts to millions of rubles, one can only guess how much the city budget has lost in more than three years.
I have a suspicion that the assessment carried out in 2014 was not used to replenish the budget at all, but to solve some other problems.
It’s no secret: a market that is not regulated by contractual relations is an easy victim for the officials supervising it. It turns out that the basis for the “wildness” of the outdoor advertising market were very “incomprehensible” schemes for receiving budget money by the city Press Committee and the City Advertising Center.
82% reward
In July 2017, deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Alexey Kovalev addressed the Chamber of Control and Accounts (CAC) with a letter, pointing out the opacity of financing of the State Unitary Enterprise “State Center for Reconstruction and Reproduction”, the budget of which, after the appointment of Sergei Serezleev as head of the Press Committee, almost doubled. A very remarkable scheme of work of the State Unitary Enterprise “State Center for Reconstruction and Reconstruction” has become public.State Unitary Enterprise "State Center for Reconstruction and Reconstruction" was empowered to enter into agreements with market participants for the placement of outdoor advertising in the city. These powers were given to him by an assignment agreement dated 1995, concluded with the City Property Management Committee (now renamed KIO - Property Relations Committee). The City Advertising Center must transfer funds received from advertising operators to the budget. To cover the costs arising in the course of this work, the State Center for Reconstruction and Research receives a remuneration - a percentage of the amount collected in the budget. This is already very doubtful from the point of view of the law. The amount of this remuneration is determined by the Press Committee... in agreement with the Finance Committee. But, as the OFAS established this year, Serezleev’s department has been doing this for a long time without any approval. Until 2014, no more than 12% of the money collected was returned to the State Center for Regional Development. With the appointment of Sergei Serezleev as chairman of the Press Committee, everything changed. Then we follow every step.
Step one. The State Center for Reconstruction and Reconstruction stopped doing what it was entrusted with: concluding contracts. The old ones are expired, and it is impossible to conclude new ones - the competition did not take place. That is, formally the City Advertising Center has ceased to perform the work for which it is entitled to remuneration.
Step two. The Press Committee and SRRR never held the competition. The operators went underground. Instead of a complex, but easily calculated scheme - an agreement with the operator, clear money into the budget, from the budget - a percentage of what was collected in the State Center for Reconstruction and Development - they built a complex new combination. SCRR collects money for “illegal enrichment.” It’s difficult to calculate exactly how much - the amounts are constantly changing, operators challenge them in the courts, negotiate changes, and advertising structures are regularly demolished.
Step three. In 2015, the percentage of remuneration of the State Center for Reconstruction and Research increases to 20%, in 2016 - to 21%. According to the SRRR itself, in 2014 the remuneration amounted to 121 million rubles, in 2015 - already 195 million rubles, and in the first quarter of 2016 - 52.5 million. (That is, perhaps more than 200 million rubles accumulate in a year.)
According to Mr. Serezleev, this is understandable, since the SCRR’s costs have increased - active work has begun on dismantling advertising structures. This is a particularly clever trick. When the contracts expired, the operators, according to the contract, had to dismantle their structures themselves. But they were told: there is no need to dismantle it - work for now, wait for a new competition and pay as you go. At the same time, the SCRR received a court order to dismantle all advertising structures. And in recent years, in no particular order, the Press Committee and the State Center for Regional Development have been demolishing advertising media here and there. It is for these works, which the St. Petersburg Press Committee and the State Unitary Enterprise “City Advertising Center” invent for themselves, that Sergei Serezleev arranges the remuneration for the State Unitary Enterprise. Market operators were all surprised by the spontaneity, chaos and lack of motivation of the dismantlings. And, it seems, everything is simple: the more he demolished, the more he compensated from the budget.
Against the backdrop of lack of control, in the fourth quarter of 2014, the chairman of the committee, Sergei Serezleev, set the amount of remuneration for the State Center for Reconstruction and Research in the amount of... 82% of the funds received. Yuri Burunov, who then held the position of director of the State Center for Regional Development, even wrote to Mr. Serezleev that he could not use this money. Well, he can’t dismantle that much: the owners of the structures are resisting, the work is going slowly - give 18%, we won’t be able to cope with any more. In the spring of 2015, Yuri Burunov left his post. The State Center for Reconstruction and Development no longer complained about its inability to absorb budgets.
But the most remarkable thing is that in the agreement between the State Center for Reconstruction and Development and the Property Committee there is not a word about dismantling. According to lawyers, this means that the SCRR cannot receive remuneration for this - neither under the contract, nor under the current legislation. Accordingly, the chairman of the Press Committee does not have the right to direct budget money to pay for work that has not been agreed upon by anyone.
Alexey Kovalev also recalled that, in fact, the Press Committee dismantles advertising media with the help of another institution - the State Treasury Institution “City Advertising and Information” (GKU “GRI”), which also receives money from the budget. It is unclear how the two organizations divide powers between themselves, which means that “double payment cannot be ruled out.” Sergei Serezleev, commenting on this claim, brushed it aside - they say that powers between organizations are distributed in accordance with Art. 19 of the Federal Law “On Advertising”. The article is long, it’s difficult to read, but there’s definitely not a word about the powers of the State Center for Reconstruction and Reconstruction and the SRI.
In fact, the main difference between the GKU “GRI” is that it is accountable to the St. Petersburg Finance Committee, receives less money, and all of it is reflected in the budget. You won't turn around.
But this is not the end. As Alexey Kovalev points out, the State Center for Reconstruction and Reconstruction requires operators to pay for dismantling. “In court, the State Center for Regional Development recovers from operators costs that may already be covered from the budget of St. Petersburg. At the same time, it remains unclear whether these funds are transferred to the budget or remain at the disposal of the leadership of the SCRR,” the deputy’s letter says.
It seems to me that the issue is not at all about the altruism of the “big guys”. I don’t think they placed more “social” ads than necessary, not being sure that they would later receive money through lawsuits for placing “free social” ads at a high commercial cost.
Against this background, the confusion with T-shaped shields, for example, seems like a trifle. These billboards have four advertising surfaces. While official contracts were in force, operators owning such billboards were obliged to give one of the parties free of charge for social advertising. There are no contracts for a long time, and operators “sculpt” commercial advertising on all four sides, but... the budget is still paid for three. It is surprising that Sergei Serezleev, with his more than 10 years of experience in the Press Committee of the St. Petersburg Administration, for some reason does not notice this “incident”.
As a result, as many in the market say, for several years now individual operators have been able to underpay millions of rubles per month to the city budget. This allows them to compensate for losses when demand for advertising falls. Unsaleable places are covered with a “product” for which not only do you not have to pay into the budget, but you can later receive compensation.
To summarize, we can conclude: the city Press Committee is manipulating the billion-dollar outdoor advertising market. The finance and financial control committees are deprived of information about the amounts that outdoor advertising operators must pay to the city budget. They do not know the size of discounts for placing social advertising, nor the reasons for providing such discounts. How much budget money is “lost” when passing through the chain “outdoor advertising operator - St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise “State Center for Regional Development” - committee - budget”? Nobody can say this for sure.
Probably, observing the wave of appeals to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg, law enforcement agencies and the courts in his address and understanding the scale of the accumulated “difficulties”, the head of the committee agreed with the city leadership on the smooth reorganization of the State Unitary Enterprise “GTSRR” into the State Public Institution “GTSRR”. In my opinion, changing the format will not fundamentally solve the accumulated problems of the advertising market, but it will allow us to start financial activities “from scratch.” In the wake of the reorganization, no one will scrupulously check the financial activities of the enterprise. And will it be possible to start all over again?
Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko appointed a new chairman of the committee on press and interaction with the media. On January 28, he will present it to members of the city government. Predictably, the head became Sergei Serezleev, who had been acting head of the department for the last few months after Alexander Lobkov left Smolny. The leaders of the city media are not surprised: Serezleev is called a professional in his field.
Collage "Fontanka"/DP
Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko appointed a new chairman of the committee on press and interaction with the media. On January 28, he will present it to members of the city government. Predictably, the head became Sergei Serezleev, who had been acting head of the department for the last few months after Alexander Lobkov left Smolny. The leaders of the city media are not surprised: Serezleev is called a professional in his field.
The chairman of the press and interaction with the media committee was the previously acting Sergei Serezleev. He is not a new person in Smolny. For the last 10 years, Serezleev has worked on the press committee, remaining in the role of first deputy chairman - both in the team of Vice-Governor Alla Manilova, and when Vasily Kichedzhi was vice-governor.
In July 2014, when the former head of the committee, Alexander Lobkov, was relieved of his post, Serezleev began to serve as acting head of the department. However, Georgy Poltavchenko decided not to make a final decision on the fate of this seat until the gubernatorial re-elections. Back in the fall, after winning the elections, Poltavchenko changed the structure of a number of divisions of Smolny, after which the press committee came under the supervision of the head of the Smolny administration, Alexander Govorunov. And only at the end of January Poltavchenko made the final decision to appoint Sergei Serezleev as head of the press committee.
Sergei Grigorievich is 46 years old. He graduated from a higher educational institution of the State Security Committee. In 2004, he received an economic education, graduating from St. Petersburg FinEk. From 1999 to 2004 he worked in the Tax Police of St. Petersburg. Since 2004, he went to work at Smolny.
Fontanka asked the opinion of the heads of various St. Petersburg media outlets regarding this appointment.
Director of AZHUR Andrey Konstantinov:
“I am sincerely happy for Sergei. In the series of current appointments at Smolny, this is one of the most successful. Serezleev has a glorious military path behind him, which few in Smolny can boast of. He worked for 10 years in the relevant committee in various positions. He started under Manilova, was the first deputy of Zinchuk, Korennikov, Lobkov. And all this time he worked effectively, which means he delved into the problems of the industry, unlike many of his colleagues, Serezleev does not need an extra minute to get up to speed. how the bureaucratic corridors of the government are structured, and, at the same time, he does not cause rejection among the majority of city media leaders. He has a good reputation as a first deputy, whom the heads of many departments in Smolny will consider it a blessing. He may not be so much a politician yet as he is. a production worker, a man of action. But, if necessary, he is also able to cope with political functions. These are the kind of professionals that are needed in times of crisis.”
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly Marina Shishkina:
“I take this appointment normally. He worked on the committee and knows this work better than others. We wrote two bills together, so I understand that he is productive and knows the problems of the industry.”
Editor-in-Chief of the Kommersant-St. Petersburg newspaper Andrey Ershov:
“Mr. Serezleev personally knows many journalists and heads of St. Petersburg media, he is an open person. As the deputy head of the Union of Journalists of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, I can say that Sergey knows and is completely immersed in the history of the restoration of the House of Journalists, listens to the opinion of the Union and is in control of the situation.”
Head of the Union of Journalists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Lyudmila Fomicheva:
“He is a professional person, he knows a lot, since he has been working as deputy chairman of the committee for 8 years. Knows the system of grants and incentives, conducts government competitions and awards, and is familiar with the advertising market. This, of course, is better than a new person coming in and delving into these details. Serezleev will be useful to journalists in this difficult time. Yes, I mean the crisis, perhaps in the near future there will be many unemployed people soon.”
General Director of the St. Petersburg TV channel Sergei Boyarsky:
“As First Deputy Acting Chairman, he was always responsive and professional. He knows this area deeply. Unfortunately, I learn about his appointment from you, so I don’t want to comment. This news was supposed to be given by the St. Petersburg TV channel and the Petersburg Diary.
The post of acting chairman of the press committee is temporarily occupied by Alexander Korennikov’s deputy, Sergei Serezleev. Temporarily - because, according to the statement of Vice-Governor Vasily Kichedzhi, more than 20 candidates are now being considered for the post of head of the department. However, the appointment of the official caused understandable bewilderment among the city’s media community, which was replaced by a sigh of relief due to the “acting” status itself.
Sergei Serezleev can be considered a cult figure for the St. Petersburg media. It is enough just to note that he was on the commission that made the decision to allocate 60 million budget rubles to the St. Petersburg TV channel that did not have one. From the biography of the official, we can only glean that before the administration of St. Petersburg, Sergei Serezleev worked in the internal affairs bodies. In the department responsible for interaction between the city government and the media, he oversaw the financial sector. Now the entire committee is at the mercy of the official - albeit temporarily.
His name appeared in the media in connection with other stories, however, as you might guess, also related to the distribution of budget funds. In particular, city subsidies to district newspapers (in 2010, the FAS found violations of the law in the actions of the Press Committee) and official newspapers. For example, in the first half of 2010, the publishing center of the government of St. Petersburg "Petrocenter" won Smolny auctions in the amount of 14.6 million rubles. At the same time, the board of directors of Petrocenter included the customer committee itself - Yuri Zinchuk (chairman of the committee at that time), Sergei Serezleev, Anatoly Agrafenin. The official is also a member of the Expert Council under the Press Committee, which decided to distribute 86 million rubles to more than 40 St. Petersburg media outlets.
Communication with the media in the epistolary genre
However, the editors of Lenizdat.Ru remember Sergei Serezleev not only for his active participation in the distribution of budget funds. In interaction with the press, Sergei Serezleev remains a consistent supporter of communication in the epistolary genre. So, for example, the transition to correspondence exclusively by regular mail can be considered committee know-how - employees deliberately do not send answers to requests by fax. It takes an average of three weeks for a letter to travel from Smolny to the editor – committee workers point to the slowness of the postal department. However, the content of the messages is quite consistent with the old-fashioned way of delivering them.
“In order to expand my professional horizons and in order to provide methodological assistance to the information agency, I am sending the requested information,” Mr. Serezleev made it a rule to begin his answers with these words.
Represented by the latter, the committee was actively involved in interaction with the media: it ignored questions sent by journalists or selected only those that were convenient to answer, suggested searching for information in open sources, or simply reported that the provision of the requested information was not provided.
An example is a request for conditions for the allocation of 60 million budget rubles to the St. Petersburg TV channel that did not have a license. Last fall, Lenizdat.Ru addressed the Committee on Press and Interaction with the Media with an official request. In it we asked the department:
What is the full composition of the Expert Council that made the decision on the allocation of budget money? Who was present at the meeting?
How was an applicant who did not have a broadcast license allowed to participate in the competition?
Two weeks later, the department’s reception desk reported that the letter with the answers had been sent by mail a week ago and that the committee employees were not responsible for the fact that the correspondence had not arrived. The committee refused to duplicate the answers by fax. The deputy head of the committee, Sergei Serezleev, proposed to forward the claims to the postal department and stated that the letter would not be forwarded again. As a result, a month later a letter from the press committee came to the editor. It reported that all the requested information was contained on the city administration website in the press committee section, which was not true. The committee responded similarly to other media requests.
The chairmen of the culture and press committees, Konstantin Sukhenko and Sergei Serezleev, respectively, may lose their positions in late December or early January. Knowledgeable people assure this lack of spirituality. It is alleged that the city government is preparing large-scale changes in several city committees at once. In particular, we are talking about the property relations committee.
The possible departure from his position of Sergei Serezleev is associated with his conflicts with the Putintsev family. Grigory Putintsev heads the City Advertising Center and is also an adviser to the governor on motorsports. His son Dmitry Putintsev received the position of adviser to the governor a few days ago. In the past, he worked in the Office of the Presidential Administration. Both Grigory Putintsev and Dmitry Putintsev are named among possible contenders for the post of chairman of the press committee. However, Dmitry is still more likely, since Grigory Putintsev will soon turn 65 years old.
Also among the contenders for the position of Sergei Serezleev is Andrei Shamray. In July 2016, after three years of work, he left the post of general director of Petrocenter, which is the founder and publisher of the official media “Petersburg Diary” and “Petersburg Photo Chronicle”. Now Shamray heads the St. Petersburg branch of MediaSoyuz.
It should be noted that Sergey Serezleev has been heading the press committee on a permanent basis since January 2015. Since August 2014 he has been “acting” chairman Before that, he headed the board of directors of OJSC City Agency for Television and Radio Broadcasting (GATR). And in 2011, he held the position of “acting” for six months. Chairman of the Press Committee. Serezleev came to work at Smolny in 2004.
Konstantin Sukhenko is also predicted to resign from the post of Chairman of the Culture Committee. Which may be caused by the insufficiently clear cultural policy of Smolny. However, according to some information, Sukhenko may be appointed head of one of the districts of St. Petersburg. Which is formally a demotion, but in practice it can mean a transition to a more interesting job that requires a greater level of independence.
Konstantin Sukhenko can be replaced by the first deputy chairman of the cultural committee, Alexander Voronko, or the general director of Petersburg Concert, Ekaterina Artyushkina.
Let us remind you that Konstantin Sukhenko has been heading the Culture Committee since February 2015. It is believed that he received this position “as a reward” for participating in the 2014 gubernatorial elections from the Liberal Democratic Party as a spoiler for Georgy Poltavchenko. In the last convocation of the Legislative Assembly, until 2015, Konstantin Sukhenko headed the Budget and Financial Committee of the city parliament. Sukhenko has been a deputy of the Legislative Assembly since 2000.
Previously, Lack of Spirituality was written about the renewed presence in Smolny of Vice-Governor Vladimir Kirillov, who oversees the activities of the Culture Committee.
However, changes after the New Year may affect other committees. For example, the property relations committee, according to rumors, will lose its authority to conclude transactions with land plots and non-residential facilities. This will subsequently be dealt with by the State Inspectorate for Control over the Use of Real Estate.
Reasons:
The New Year is a traditional time for making changes to the structure of the work of executive authorities. Perhaps Smolny will face more changes than those described above.
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