Stepped on the gas
For two years, Sevastopol residents have not come to like the visiting official Yevgeny Gorlov, and he has not become a full-fledged vice-governor of the city-region. Recently, Gorlov was arrested. The former official is suspected of accepting a bribe – right in his office.
By July 2019, the Governor of Sevastopol Dmitry Ovsyannikovwho arrived from Udmurtia, earned dubious fame and resigned of his own free will. The heroes of the “Crimean Spring” disappeared somewhere, new people took power.
Evgeniy Gorlovan official who appeared in Sevastopol, did not leave for Ovsyannikov. A native of the Amur Region, he graduated from the university with a degree in “Service and technical operation of technical and technological machines and equipment”, has a PhD degree. But this techie felt the south, stayed here. Gorlov was the director of the MUP Housing and Public Utilities in Rostov-on-Don, from May 2013 to January 2015 he worked as vice-mayor of Sochi. In November 2017, he transferred to work in the Sevastopol administration, later became the head of the city’s department of urban economy.
In July 2019, by presidential decree, the acting governor of Sevastopol was appointed head of the executive committee of the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF), a 38-year-old native of Krasnoyarsk Mikhail Razvozhaeva history teacher by education. In the fall of 2018, Mr. Razvozhaev headed the Republic of Khakassia as an acting governor, and before that he worked in the Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs, where he moved in 2014 from the administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In 2020, Razvozhaev was elected governor of Sevastopol in direct elections. Razvozhaev is not familiar with the specifics of the resort and military region; he did not have his own team either in Sevastopol or in Crimea. And Gorlov continued to work, moving up the career ladder. Since January 2023, in the position of acting deputy governor of Sevastopol, he oversaw issues of housing and communal services, fuel and energy complex and environmental protection, waste management, design and placement of improvement facilities.
It should be noted here that municipal services in a seaside city also include city beaches. There are 25 of them in Sevastopol, and they are managed and controlled by the city services department. On each piece of the seashore, loyal entrepreneurs-tenants can earn money, but not opposition ones. An official always has a choice…
In the very center of Sevastopol there is a very specific beach called Khrustalny. It is completely artificial – these are concrete slabs sprinkled with sand. Changing rooms, rental points, sun loungers and lifeguards look strange at the foot of the monument, the entrance to the building of the Marine Hydrophysical Institute, in close proximity to the piers from where boats go to the Northern side. This beach is not suitable for children: you have to go down to the water along ladders, like in a swimming pool, and it is deep right away. Nevertheless, the beach has probably existed since the post-war years, it is always crowded. There is only one restriction: due to intensive shipping in these places, it is not allowed to sail further than 100 m from the shore.
With the beginning of the SVO, some beaches were closed to visitors, vacationers and Sevastopol residents were reminded of the military history and naval essence of the city. The more valuable – in all respects – were the permits for placing businesses on the “golden” beach spots. And it was at this opportune moment, as it may seem, at the beginning of the 2022 swimming season, that the head of the communal services Evgeniy Gorlov presents a new concept for the Khrustalny beach. He announces the creation of a certain “elite” zone near the restaurants, where only respectable visitors are supposed to be allowed,
« so that a person who sits and eats, including in the center, does not pay attention to people in bathing suits… some do not look very presentable“.
For Governor Razvozhaev, such concern for those “eating” and Gorlov’s desire for beach beauty and sophistication turned out to be unexpected:
« What kind of statements are you making there? What kind of elite zones are you planning to set up there? This is a public city beach, it has always been that way. First of all, put things in order there, with all this stall magnificence – first. Secondly, stop making statements that no one has authorized you to make. Otherwise, you will go back to work in Sochi.“.
In 2023, Mikhail Razvozhaev instructed acting Deputy Governor Yevgeny Gorlov to prepare shelters in case of a missile strike. And publicly reprimanded him for untimely completion. According to Gorlov, the work to clear basements in 3,665 apartment buildings in the city was 82% complete.
The Legislative Assembly deputies were pressured to support the candidacy of Yevgeny Gorlov and make him a full-fledged vice-governor. But the local deputies were unable or unwilling to approve Gorlov in the new position for a year and a half – there were chronically not enough “for” votes, no matter what. That is, Razvozzhayev did not choose Gorlov as his deputy, he took him from a deck dealt from above. And sparks noticeable to residents had been flying between them for a long time. In early August 2024, something happened, and the patient governor fired his deputy. Announcing the decision, the head of the region wrote that “any manifestation of corruption will be punished.”
And on August 29, the Basmanny Court of Moscow remanded former acting deputy governor of Sevastopol Yevgeny Gorlov in custody until October 25, 2024.
Evgeny Gorlov is charged under Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (accepting a bribe). They say that in order to implement his plans, Evgeny Gorlov formed a criminal group consisting of officials of the Sevastopol government. And to begin with, Gorlov achieved the appointment of a regional operator State Unitary Enterprise “Sevastopolgaz”which was created in 2015 – in violation of the requirements of the RF Government Resolution No. 1547 of September 13, 2021. The new regional operator quickly received funding, and within two years should have connect 18,100 subscribers of the city and its suburbs to the gas network. To date, only 450 subscribers have been connected. Moreover, the specified number of households could not be technically gasified; most of them require the construction of new gas distribution stations. The acting deputy governor for housing and communal services was detained while receiving six million rubles under the gasification program. The city telegram channel Sevastopol No. 1 notes:
« Even the security forces are a little shocked by the amount of the bribe and the entourage of its receipt“.
