Ukraine, the Kremlin leaves the hot potato of reconstruction to the regions

Mariupol twinned with St. Petersburg. Donetsk and Luhansk with Moscow. The Kremlin leaves to the regions of the Russian Federation the onerous task of reconstructing the Ukrainian cities occupied after the devastating fighting they took place, the “liberated territories”, according to the rhetoric of Moscow. The model is the one inaugurated with the pandemic: the vertical of power dissolves in favor of the redistribution of responsibilities, where problems are difficult to hide. The governor of the ‘window to Europe’ region, Aleksandr Beglov, recently kicked off the Russian government’s program with a visit to the rubble of Mariupol. But more than forty regions of the Federation have announced their intention to take care of an area of ​​Ukraine occupied by Russian forces. From Mariupol, Beglov announced that every school in the Black Sea city ravaged by the long battle for control of him will be associated with a school in the region that he administers. In Mariupol, Beglov first went to a school, where he distributed tablets to the boys. He then stopped at the theater, where hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed in the bombing of Russian forces in March. “Each school in Mariupol will be assisted by an institute in St. Petersburg,” he said, later anticipating the financing of the reconstruction of houses, schools and kindergartens. For this, teams of construction workers will also be sent. But administrative officials and teachers are also expected to arrive. To speed up the Russification process. That the twinning is not just about material reconstruction was demonstrated by the “Alye Parusa” (scarlet sails), the great traditional St. Petersburg party for graduate students, which this year was also held simultaneously in Mariupol. “It is both an attempt by the Kremlin to get rid of the responsibility for additional costs, leaving them in the hands of the regional governors, and a public relations campaign. The Kremlin has obviously stolen the idea of ​​reconstruction from the Western countries who have announced their commitment to this sense “, commented analyst Ivan Preobrazhensky in an interview with the Moscow Times. Last month, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin pledged to rebuild Luhansk and Donetsk with the aim of restoring, he said, “a normal and peaceful life”. Celyabinsk sent ten ambulances to the Donbass district of Yasynuvata, as part of a twinning between the Magadan region, more than ten thousand kilometers from eastern Ukraine, with Zhdanivka. “It is a positive decision. It is not efficient to control everything from the federal center. Different cities require different approaches and it is easier to work directly with the Russian regions. It means that the governors will travel, control everything themselves and discuss the situation with the authorities. local people, “a source in the Moscow administration with links to the Kremlin explained to the independent English-language newspaper. The idea would have come to Vladimir Putin himself who would then have entrusted Sergei Kirienko, the deputy head of the Kremlin Administration who became director of the operation in Ukraine, with the realization of the project. Kirienko was one of the first Russian exponents to visit the liberated Ukrainian cities: in Mariupol he inaugurated a statue of “Babushka Anja”, the elderly woman who, in a forced interpretation, would have welcomed the Russian forces with a Soviet flag. The two-year plan is that of investments of the equivalent of 34 million dollars, anticipated the ‘Premier’ of the Autonomous Republic of Donetsk, Vitaliy Khotsenko, without any confirmation in this sense from the Russian side. In case the money does not arrive, the Kremlin will only have to put the responsibility on the regions.