Anatoly Baranov: Bureaucracy system often kills its own officials

A murder is always a murder and the death of the deputy prefect of the western administrative district of Moscow, Sergey Balashov can not be a subject for public discussions. It is not allowed to say anything bad about the dead people, or simply do not say anything otherwise.

A trend is another matter. On July 24 of the current year Leonid Oblonsky was killed - the deputy prefect of the Zelenograd district. There was also an attempt on the vice-premiere of the Moscow government, Iosif Orjonikidze, who managed to stay alive (his driver was killed). There were also other attempts made on Lubov Kezina – a minister of the government, even on vice mayor Valery Shantsev. This is the trend.

Speaking about Sergey Balashov’s assassination, Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov said that his position became the reason of his own death. Shall we assume that an official position in the system of the Moscow authorities is life-threatening then?

Balashov was in charge of the questions, connected with the construction. He was also in charge of the question connected with the land for the new construction. Of course, mass media outlets and simply common Muscovites suspected that Balashov was murdered because of the activity that he was running on his position. The organization of the assassination itself did not give any reasons to presume a crime was caused by jealousy, or temporary insanity: two assassins were waiting for Balashov near the prefecture building, they ran up to his car, shot him point-blank and ran away. It is an open secret this “special operation” costs a lot and not every Muscovite can afford it. So Balashov was ordered by someone – either someone from his clients, or someone, wishing to put another person on Balashov’s position.

The auditors of the Moscow Clearing House complain they are not allowed to access the materials of the activity check. The law-enforcement bodies often withdraw the documents with the use of the force, which can sometimes be enough to carry out the cleansing of a small Chechen town. Of course there will be “a businessman of great authority” in the home criminal environment, who will prefer to solve everything at once, very quickly, like a snap. It sounds like a paradox, but if the Moscow officials want to live, they are supposed to open the gates to power for the majority of the population. Those active ones, who fail to win the elections, they try to look for other ways for their self-realization, including the illegitimate ways, certainly. This may lead to lamentable consequences in the country, where the wars have been going on for 22 years and each third man participated in this or that war.