Customs gives more, but takes less: a year of Vladimir Bulavin’s work as head of the Federal Customs Service. Vladimir Bulavin appointed head of the Federal Customs Service Resignation after search

The new head of the Federal Customs Service. The now former presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Northwestern Federal District, Vladimir Bulavin, became the country's chief customs officer. He has worked in this position since March 2013.

“Thank you for the offer. I will try to understand this complex system as soon as possible and justify your trust,” the new head of customs, Vladimir Bulavin, responded to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev immediately after his appointment.

It is worth noting that the biography of the new head of the Federal Customs Service is not replete with details of his career growth, much less his personal life. Vladimir Bulavin rarely gave interviews; such secrecy is most likely explained by the “Chekist” past of the appointee.

According to the official biography, Vladimir Bulavin is 63 years old. In 1975, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers. Then he studied at the training courses for operational personnel at the Higher Red Banner School of the KGB of the USSR, now this is the main “personnel forge” of the special service - the FSB Academy of Russia.

Since 1977, Bulavin worked in the KGB department for the Gorky (then Nizhny Novgorod) region, and subsequently headed it. He was the Chairman of the Council of Chiefs of the FSB of Russia of the Volga Federal District. Since March 2006 - Deputy Director of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev, Chief of Staff of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. In this position, he dealt mainly with the problems of the North Caucasus. On May 30, 2008, he was appointed First Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev. On March 11, 2013, he was appointed Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District.

The parliamentary corps was enthusiastic about the appointment of a new head of customs. Thus, the first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Nationalities Affairs, Mikhail Starshinov, notes that many questions have accumulated regarding the work of the Federal Customs Service, and Vladimir Bulavin will restore order in the department. According to the parliamentarian, Bulavin is a career intelligence officer and has an impeccable track record.

At the same time, Andrei Belyaninov was removed from the leadership of customs. As noted, he was relieved of his post “at his own request.” Let us remind you that Belyaninov will turn 60 in a year. He has headed the customs service since May 2006. Before that, he worked in foreign intelligence, including in the GDR, and headed Rosoboronexport, the Federal Service for Defense Procurement.

Meanwhile

Today, the first deputy director of the Federal Service of the National Guard of the Russian Federation (Rosgvardia) was also appointed. This was 50-year-old Sergei Melikov, who previously held the position of plenipotentiary president of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus Federal District.

The main career milestones of the 50-year-old deputy head of the Russian Guard developed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Let us remind you that the Russian Guard was created this year on the basis of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

From 1997 to 2008, Sergei Melikov served in the renowned Dzerzhinsky Separate Special Purpose Division, stationed in Balashikha near Moscow. In 2002, he headed the division, nicknamed “Dzerzhinka” by the troops. After 2008 and until 2014, when he was appointed plenipotentiary representative to the North Caucasian Federal District, Melikov served in the leadership apparatus of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. First in the Central Regional Command, and since 2011 - commander of the Joint Group of Forces to conduct counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus region.

Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin was born in the village of Stanovaya, Lipetsk region, which was later merged with the village of Ploskoye into the regional center of Stanovoe. Vladimir was a smart boy and therefore, after school, he went to Moscow to receive higher education, where he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. After graduating from university, he was assigned as a design engineer to the Voskhod machine-building plant in the city of Pavlovo, Gorky Region.

Vladimir Bulavin established himself as a disciplined, hardworking and vigilant employee, and after two years of his work, representatives of state security agencies approached him with an offer to join their ranks. Vladimir Bulavin did not refuse and after two years of training at the Higher Red Banner School of the KGB of the USSR in Minsk, he was sent to the KGB Directorate for the Gorky Region.

Bulavin systematically moved up the career ladder, and when in 1992, after a change of power in the country, mass resignations began in the central apparatus and local bodies of the former KGB, he turned out to be a suitable figure to head the regional administration. Over the nineties, the department changed its name twice, as, incidentally, the name of the region itself changed. As a result, Vladimir Bulavin turned out to be the head of the Federal Security Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Vladimir Bulavin — Nizhny Novgorod

The department of Vladimir Bulavin was significantly inferior in number to the Nizhny Novgorod police, and, nevertheless, its importance in the region could not be overestimated. All major cases were handled by the feds. Several secret defense enterprises were located on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region, from which classified information flowed to the West in the nineties. Bulavin's people managed to stop the trade in state secrets from the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, thereby preventing possible damage of several billion dollars. After this incident, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod FSB was awarded the military rank of lieutenant general. In addition, there were corruption investigations and suppression of terrorist acts.

In a word, Bulavin’s weight in the region was growing rapidly, and even though he was a man of few words, he was perceived not only as a security official, but also as a political figure. Therefore, when the commander of the special police detachment, Colonel Alexander Vasiliev, decided to take part in the mayoral elections of 1998, this step was linked by everyone to the words of Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin, who said that time demands that a representative of the security forces come to power in the city. Vasiliev himself assured that he was an independent figure, and the words of the representative of the special services only served as an impetus for the decision.

One way or another, a man with a criminal past, Andrei Klimentyev, who was close to the former governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Boris Nemtsov, who at that time moved to the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin, almost became mayor. But Klimentyev was already being “developed” by law enforcement agencies, including Bulavin’s department, which was also involved in the case. Therefore, literally a few days after the voting results were announced, the elections were declared invalid, and the failed mayor was arrested. True, in the re-elections Colonel Vasiliev took only seventh place, gaining only 0.56%. And another person of Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Kiriyenko, Yuri Lebedev, became mayor.

Secret “arbiter” Vladimir Bulavin

In 2001, the roads of Klimentyev and Bulavin crossed again. That year, Vladimir Ivanovich just took the position of Chairman of the Council of Chiefs of the FSB of Russia in the Volga Federal District (VFD), and Andrei Anatolyevich was released early the year before. There were rumors about both that they were preparing to participate in the gubernatorial elections. Klimentyev openly announced his intention to become governor, and when naming his main rivals, he also mentioned Bulavin, who did not publicly show gubernatorial ambitions, but began to appear more often on the television screens of Nizhny Novgorod residents.

In turn, the head of the FSB for the Volga region mentioned Klimentyev in his speech when commenting on the upcoming elections. The lieutenant general warned about the danger of “persons who have spent more than one five-year period in prison” coming to power, transparently hinting at Andrei Anatolyevich. However, Bulavin’s attention was paid not only to the criminal, but also to the current mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Lebedev, who was not allowed to participate in the gubernatorial elections. After Vladimir Bulavin stated that the law should be the same for everyone, regardless of the “post held,” it became clear to everyone that the mayor had no chance of raising his status to governor.

Vladimir Bulavin himself did not go to the elections, but it was obvious that the center elected him as a secret arbiter who made sure that the situation of the 1998 mayoral election campaign was not repeated. Klimentyev, on top of everything else, fell into disgrace with his former patrons Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Kiriyenko, who became the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Volga Federal District, and took only fifth place. Communist Gennady Khodyrev won the elections in the second round.

Vladimir Bulavin in the service of the State

Kiriyenko was dissatisfied with Khodyrev’s victory, so Vladimir Bulavin, who worked closely with the plenipotentiary, began to pay close attention to the new governor. Over time, the secret services’ files accumulated a lot for the head of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Under the leadership of Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin, a high-profile investigation took place in the region against the head of the main department of road and transport facilities (Dorfond) Yuri Muravyov, whom Khodyrev personally invited from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.

It turned out that the expense items indicated in Dorfond’s estimate for the “purchase of road equipment” concealed the purchase of luxury exclusive cars for the personal use of the fund’s managers. In addition, it is not clear why Dorfond had an expensive representative office in Moscow, and also allocated considerable sums for foreign trips of the head of this organization.

As a result, one of the high-ranking employees of the Road Fund, Sergei Maklagin, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, while Muravyov “got off” with resignation. Instead, Khodyrev invited another Muscovite, Oleg Zakharov. The new head of the organization was also found guilty of considerable sins, and in 2004 he was arrested.

Also in 2004, a scandal broke out. Representatives of the special services detained three employees of the Nizhny Novgorod regional administration, who were accused of trying to establish surveillance of the head of the FSB. The detainees themselves claimed that they were trying to establish the reasons for the leak of confidential information from the administration’s computer network, since work was underway to discredit their superiors.

However, even without a confrontation with the governor, the head of the FSB had enough worries. In 2004 alone, his department detained 11 members of international terrorist organizations in the Nizhny Novgorod region. In addition, Vladimir Bulavin, being the Chairman of the Council of Chiefs of the FSB Directorate for the Volga Federal District, participated in the discovery of similar cells in such large cities as Kazan and Ulyanovsk. In the same year, his service again stopped an attempt to steal state secrets from the closed city of Sarov.

In 2004, the procedure for vesting powers with senior officials of constituent entities was changed. Now they were approved by decisions of legislative bodies at the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation. Already in 2005, a new governor was supposed to be appointed in the Nizhny Novgorod region. And again, Vladimir Bulavin was named the main candidate. Vladimir Ivanovich, in order to finally dispel all speculation on this score, publicly stated that he was not going to leave the service, while simultaneously expressing support for the new procedure for appointing heads of regions.

Vladimir Bulavin and the Chechen amnesty

However, Vladimir Bulavin, who over the years of his service managed to acquire high-ranking patrons, was awaiting a promotion. In 2006, under the patronage of then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, he was appointed deputy director of the FSB. In addition, a new structure was created under the “Nizhny Novgorod resident” - the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC), of which he became the secretary.

The main task of the NAC was to normalize the situation in the North Caucasus. From the center, Bulavin was entrusted with the difficult task of carrying out the unpopular “Chechen amnesty”, which was officially offered to those convicted of minor crimes during the counter-terrorism operation, but it was obvious to everyone that the word “minor” was simply inappropriate here.

Vladimir Bulavin had to convince the State Duma of the need for such a step. Not only in parliament, but also in society there was heated debate about this issue. People were worried that the amnestied militants would be given shoulder straps and weapons, and film director Stanislav Govorukhin angrily declared that “in Chechnya, they slaughtered us, and they will continue to slaughter us.” And only thanks to the authority of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose support was secured by the head of NAC, the amnesty was finally announced.

After the green light was received, the next, no less difficult stage began - the actual implementation of the amnesty itself. In the first six months, Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin said that hundreds of militants laid down their arms, but when a specific figure was given, it turned out that only 288 people were hiding behind the “hundreds.” In addition, the head of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee promised that everyone amnestied would be under operational control. And yet there was no public confidence in the promises made.

In general, Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin managed to organize the work of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee in a short time. At the same time, he firmly joined Nikolai Patrushev’s team and could safely be called his man. But in 2008, after Dmitry Medvedev became President, the FSB was headed by Alexander Bortnikov. Patrushev was appointed secretary of the Security Council, and Bulavin, again under the patronage of Ivanov, received the post of his deputy. At the same time, analysts said that the arrival of such a specialist as the former head of NAC should have increased the status of the Security Council.

Death of Oleg Efremov

In 2009, echoes of the Nizhny Novgorod period of Vladimir Ivanovich’s career surfaced, when Bulavin’s employees carried out operational developments not only in relation to Gennady Khodyrev’s people, but also in relation to his wife Gulya, who was suspected of organizing an illegal additional issue of shares of the Novomirsky Mining and Processing Plant.

After Vladimir Bulavin left for the central office, the new head of the Nizhny Novgorod FSB Directorate, Lieutenant General Oleg Khramov, dropped the case against Khodyreva. Another employee of this department, Colonel Oleg Efremov, was dissatisfied with this decision, who claimed that the case was dropped for a bribe of 100 million rubles. Efremov worked with Bulvin in Nizhny Novgorod since 1993, and after his boss left, he not only remained under the new leadership, but also headed the investigation department of the FSB.

And now, in 2009, Efremov himself went to jail. Back in 2004, the Nizhny Novgorod State Drug Control Service detained two dealers who claimed that they purchased heroin from the former head of the investigative department of the FSB Directorate for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Vladimir Obukhov. At that time, the case did not receive further development, but with the arrival of Khramov it was resumed, and the leadership of the investigative department of the FSB was almost completely dissolved. In this case, Efremov was arrested, and he was unexpectedly transferred to the Bor special colony, despite the fact that guilt had not yet been proven. Here he was tortured to death in solitary confinement.

After the tragedy, letters from the deceased were discovered, in which he outlined his own version of his arrest, including that he was required to testify against Bulavin. In 2011, the Bor City Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region issued a verdict in the case of the death of Oleg Efremov. The jailers were declared guilty, and some of the defendants were classified as secret and actually spared from real punishment.

Vladimir Bulavina and the Federal Customs Service

In 2013, changes occurred in the Northwestern Federal District. The post of Plenipotentiary Representative of the President was left there by Nikolai Vinnichenko, who back in the mid-2000s, due to disagreements with the then Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, left the post of prosecutor of St. Petersburg. And now, thanks to the patronage of his former classmate, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, he has the opportunity to return to the leadership ranks of the prosecutor's office. The question arose of who would replace Vinnichenko as plenipotentiary. And again, Sergei Ivanov, who at that time was already the head of the Presidential Administration, did not find a better candidate for his recommendations than Vladimir Bulavin.

This choice was also supported by Georgy Poltavchenko, who was preparing for the elections in St. Petersburg and who needed the figure of a technical executive who would not overshadow his already not bright figure. In addition, Georgy Sergeevich was captivated by the fact that their biographies almost touched in their early years - Poltavchenko was admitted to the Higher Courses of the KGB, just when Vladimir Bulavin completed his studies there.

At the end of 2015, Vladimir Bulavin began to receive signals that smuggling was taking place in large quantities in his district. The import of illegal cargo was started by a St. Petersburg businessman with a reputation as a “mafia”, who worked closely with representatives of the highest echelons of law enforcement agencies. Vladimir Bulavin gave the command to collect all available information and identify facts of violations of the law. As a result, a criminal case was opened against Mikhalchenko, and heads rolled among the security forces. In particular, the head of the Federal Customs Service was dismissed and replaced by Bulavin.

It is no coincidence that Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin was entrusted with bringing order to the customs service. In recent years, he served as plenipotentiary representative in the Northwestern Federal District, which is one of the key transit regions of the Russian Federation. Vladimir Bulavin not only studied the region well, participated in personnel policy, but also fully supervised the activities of the special services regarding investigations of smuggling activities in the territory entrusted to him. In addition, the Kremlin would like to see a “transparent” executor in place of the previous head of the Federal Customs Service, whose activities left many questions for law enforcement agencies. And Vladimir Bulavin himself gladly accepted the new appointment, since he himself repeated more than once that he does not strive for political activity, but considers service to be his business.

Vladimir Bulavin, who has become the new head of the Federal Customs Service, will first deal with personnel and “strengthening discipline” in the customs authorities.

As Life learned, the former presidential envoy in the Northwestern Federal District, Vladimir Bulavin, who was appointed on July 28 to head the Federal Customs Service, will soon carry out a “cleansing” of the department: the generals who were part of the so-called inner circle of the ex-head of the Federal Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov will be sent into retirement. .

Here (in the central office) we are waiting for the new boss (Vladimir Bulavin) to start cleaning up. They say that a list of dismissals has already been sent to the personnel department,” says Life’s interlocutor from the Federal Customs Service. - The first “candidates for relegation” are two of Belyaninov’s deputies - generals Ruslan Davydov and Andrei Strukov.

39-year-old General Andrei Strukov, after graduating from the Academy of the FSB of the Russian Federation, served in the state security agencies until 2003. From 2003 to 2006 he worked at Rosoboronexport, where Belyaninov himself served before being appointed head of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation. And in 2006, Andrei Strukov moved from Rosoboronexport to the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, which at the same time was headed by Andrei Belyaninov.

It was General Strukov who was the most trusted person of the head of customs. Belyaninov trusted him as much as himself,” an interlocutor familiar with the situation admits in a conversation with a Life correspondent.

It was in Mr. Strukov’s office on July 26, 2016 that investigators from the RF IC, together with officers from the FSB of the Russian Federation, conducted a search. The operatives were looking for documents confirming the connection between the customs general and the head of the Forum company, Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who was previously detained in March 2016 and is suspected of smuggling alcohol.

On the same day, the offices of Andrei Belyaninov himself and his deputy Ruslan Davydov were searched.

According to Life, people from the FSB of the Russian Federation with experience in identifying various channels of smuggling and counterintelligence activities will be appointed to the vacant positions in the updated Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation as heads of operational services.

Vladimir Bulavin’s deputies will most likely be people whom he knows personally, trusts them as himself and already has experience working together, sources say. - Vladimir Bulavin served in the security agencies for more than 30 years and the first thing he will do in his new place is to “sieve through” the entire central apparatus and the leadership of regional departments and operational services in order to cleanse the service of nepotism and corruption in which it has been mired since recent years,” says Life’s source in the state security agencies.

According to him, it is Bulavin who must cleanse the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation from traitors and put a barrier to smuggling, as it was in Soviet times.

Vladimir Ivanovich, who has worked in senior positions in the FSB of the Russian Federation since 1992, and in 2008 was the first deputy director of the service, has enough experience to reform the operational activities of customs in the shortest possible time, believes a Life source working in one of the law enforcement agencies.

As Life’s interlocutor from the Russian Government apparatus notes, one of Bulavin’s deputies will be a person from the Ministry of Finance. In January 2016, President Vladimir Putin reassigned the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation from the Ministry of Economic Development to the Ministry of Finance, which was instructed to control customs revenues to the budget together with the Federal Tax Service.

Let us recall that the scandal associated with the name of Andrei Belyaninov broke out on the morning of July 26, 2016. FSB operatives conducted searches of the FCS headquarters on Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow and the country house of the head of the FCS.

According to Life, in the offices of the deputy heads of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation Ruslan Davydov, Andrei Strukov and the director of the service Andrei Belyaninov himself and in his country house, investigators were most likely looking for documents confirming the connection of the customs generals with the oligarch Dmitry Mikhalchenko, his deputy Boris Korevsky, co-owner of the company "Contrail Logistics North-West" Anatoly Kindzersky and the general director of the South-Eastern Trading Company Ilya Pichko, accused of smuggling alcohol. And investigative actions were carried out after one of the defendants in a criminal case of smuggling - Anatoly Kindzersky - made a deal with the investigation. According to unofficial data, he allegedly named the deputy general director of the Forum company, Boris Korevsky, as the organizer of the smuggling.

The investigation believes that businessman Sergei Lobanov, who allegedly worked as an adviser to the head of the Federal Customs Service, promised Mikhalchenko that the operation to deliver a large batch of elite alcohol across the border to Russia would be successful. However, when crossing the customs post in the port of Ust-Luga (a port in the suburbs of St. Petersburg), a shipment of alcohol was detained when they tried to clear it through customs under the guise of construction sealant.

The head of the Arsenal company, Sergei Lobanov, is still being used as a witness in the smuggling case. The former head of the Federal Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov has the same status as a witness in this criminal case,” said Life’s interlocutor from the special services. - Four detained businessmen are suspected under Article 202.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Smuggling of alcoholic beverages.”

According to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, in the country house of the head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) Andrei Belyaninov with an area of ​​1565 sq. m, located in the cottage village "Bachurino" of the Leninsky district of the Moscow region, investigators found 9.5 million rubles, 390 thousand US dollars and 350 thousand euros in shoe boxes folded in neat bundles. The total amount of money is equivalent to 58 million rubles. They found in Belyaninov’s house a 1 kg gold bar and five gold nuggets with a total weight of about 200 g. In addition, the walls of the customs officer’s house were decorated with paintings by painters of the 17th-19th centuries.

About the money, even during the search, Belyaninov said that it was his savings. In order for people to believe him, the former head of the Federal Customs Service will have to prove this with documents. In the meantime, security officers do not rule out that this money could be related to the smuggling case.

But the nuggets may be a different story: Belyaninov has every chance of getting caught in a criminal case. Article 191 of the Criminal Code prohibits transactions with precious metals and stones, their storage and transfer. Punishment under this article is forced labor for up to five years, or imprisonment for the same period, or a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles.

The Guild of Jewelers of Russia suggests that the gold bar held by the ex-head of the Federal Customs Service was legal.

This is a standard gold bar of maximum 999 purity, weighing 1 kg. Such bars are in free legal circulation, they can be bought at any bank for an average of 2.9 million rubles,” the head of the guild, Eduard Utkin, told Life. - When selling an ingot, all necessary documents are issued, and by its number you can completely track its fate.

According to income declarations for 2015, the head of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation earned about 13 million rubles, and his wife Lyudmila earned about 46 million rubles. She also owns two land plots with a total area of ​​3610 square meters. m, residential building with an area of ​​297 sq. m, apartment in Bulgaria with an area of ​​117 sq. m, garage area 179 sq. m, as well as a number of non-residential premises with a total area of ​​more than 600 sq. m.

is not a native of the city of Gorky. However, like other famous Nizhny Novgorod figures on a federal scale: for example, Boris Nemtsov was born in Sochi, and Sergei Kiriyenko was born in Sukhumi.

Born in the Lipetsk region in 1953, Bulavin, however, after completing the operational training courses at the Higher Red Banner School of the KGB of the USSR in 1979, was sent to operational work in the Directorate of the KGB of the USSR for the Gorky Region. Where he served for the next 27 years, first rising to the rank of head of the UMB-UFSK-UFSB of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region (1992) and at the same time to the chairman of the council of heads of the FSB of Russia in the Volga Federal District (from 2011 to 2006).
Then Bulavin goes for promotion. In this respect, his career is atypical for “Nizhny Novgorod residents in Moscow.” Most of them went to conquer federal borders following Boris Nemtsov in 1997 and for the most part soon returned back.
Bulavin’s career growth is in no way connected with spontaneous political waves, but it was he who managed to enter the pool of the most trusted persons of the state leadership. I must say, not without reason.

Vladimir Putin relies on proven personnel

Judge for yourself.

In 2006, he was appointed deputy director of the FSB of Russia - head of the newly created apparatus of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. Let us remember that we are talking, firstly, essentially about the alma mater of the Russian president - the Federal Security Service. Secondly, the fight against terrorism at this time comes to the forefront of attention of both the head of state and the security services. The more significant and weighty this appointment looks.
June 2, 2008 Vladimir Bulavin - First Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. And on March 11, 2013, by decree Vladimir Putin appointed plenipotentiary representative of the head of state in the Northwestern Federal District. That is, again, not just anywhere, but to the homeland of the president.

Today, Colonel-General Bulavin is back where the president needed a person he can rely on - the customs service, which has recently gotten into the habit of giving the go-ahead too often to just anyone.

Vladimir Bulavin learned about his appointment literally the day before, when in a telephone conversation the head of state invited the now former plenipotentiary to take up a new responsible post in the capital.
Bulavin's case is unique for the Nizhny Novgorod elite. He managed to become one of the two branches of the Russian elite, the most important for Vladimir Putin: both in the law enforcement agencies and among the “Petersburg residents”. In light of the fact that analysts sometimes call these two branches opposing, Bulavin’s position becomes doubly unique. The president's confidence became both a shield and a sword for the general.

Vladimir Bulavin fully fits into the current Kremlin team

None of the Nizhny Novgorod residents managed to achieve something similar, despite the fact that there were plenty of candidates for “exaltation.”
In 1997/98, the exodus of Nizhny Novgorod residents into big-time politics became widespread. There is nothing similar in the modern history of the country, with the exception, of course, of the massive rise to key positions of the country by natives of St. Petersburg.

Undoubtedly, Boris Nemtsov was the brightest star of Nizhny Novgorod politics. His life story and tragic one are well known. It was Nemtsov who brought with him to the capital several dozen Nizhny Novgorod residents who occupied significant positions in the administrative structures of Russia at the end of the century.

However, along with successful appointments there were also crushing failures. The most famous of them was labor activity Boris Brevnov.

A former adviser on economic issues to the head of the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region, and then a member of the regional investment council and the industry council, chairman of the committee on banks, Brevnov in just a month became the chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia, one of the largest monopolies in the world.
This happened in May 1997, and already in December Brevnov was summoned to a meeting of the Cheka to strengthen payment discipline as one of the largest budget defaulters. Against the backdrop of non-payment of wages to industry workers, Brevnov was remembered for the largest salary at that time, chartering a plane across the ocean for his American wife Gretchen Wilson at the expense of the company, paying from the RAO budget for an apartment in Moscow and a dacha worth 1 billion rubles near Moscow.

“I will ask that the fact of the sale of the Motherland be recorded in the protocol!”, as they say...
We also had such a Nizhny Novgorod citizen in power, but few people remember or know about it. Then the press will note that “during Brevnov’s reign, RAO UES’s debts to the federal budget increased by 70%, wage arrears increased by one and a half times, and obligations to the Pension Fund doubled.”
The traces of Boris Brevnov, who resigned in March 1998, run through the vice presidency of the largest energy monster Enron, where he became the right hand Kenneth Lay, subsequently found guilty of fraud, and then lost to the USA, where he first lectured on the topic "Where is Russia going?" (expert!), and then disappeared like Bulgakov’s Koroviev.

In comparison with previous history, the career of another Nizhny Novgorod resident looks extremely successful - Sergei Kiriyenko. It was he, the youngest prime minister in Russian history, who headed the country's government at the age of 35, who was subsequently blamed for the default and crisis of 1998, after which it seemed that the career of any politician could be considered a hopelessly dead end. However, in December 1999, Kiriyenko, as one of the leaders of the Union of Right Forces, along with Boris Nemtsov and Irina Khakamada, was triumphantly elected to the State Duma, where he became the leader of the SPS faction. Then from May 2000 it becomes Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District. He is perhaps the only plenipotentiary representative who is not a security official.

The political destinies of Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Kiriyenko developed very differently

Kiriyenko will head the embassy until the fall of 2005. He will sow in the minds of Nizhny Novgorod the myth of the “metropolitan character” of Nizhny Novgorod, and will start a protracted information war with the oil tycoon Dmitry Savelyev, will unsuccessfully try to hold a second term as governor in 2001 Ivan Sklyarova. After this failure, the Legislative Assembly led by Evgeniy Lyulin to war with the head of the region Gennady Khodyrev.
Kiriyenko will have time to “register” a new governor in the region - Valeria Shantseva, giving him a set of entrenching tools “for registration” in order to “equip the area.” Shantsev will take full advantage of the recruitment, hastening to clear the area under himself from the remnants of Kiriyenko’s encirclement.

Against this background, the current Volga region plenipotentiary Mikhail Babich looks very advantageous, acting for several years now as a wise and equidistant political arbiter for the Volga regions.

In 2005, Sergei Vladilenovich, former head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy in the government Viktor Chernomyrdin, becomes the head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency of Russia (Rosatom), subsequently - State Corporation "Rosatom", where he still works.
Apart from him, few managed to gain a foothold at the federal peaks. Mentioned Dmitry Savelyev, who during the “Nemtsov exodus” had the opportunity to take the helm of the monopoly Transneft PJSC, engaged in pumping hydrocarbons throughout the country and abroad, is now a modest deputy of the State Duma from the Tula region. He is a member of the United Russia party and the Duma Committee on Health Protection.

The native of Dzerzhinsk was least affected by time Mikhail Seslavinsky.

Mikhail Seslavinsky settled in the capital long ago and firmly, but he never had enough stars from the sky

In 1998, having become the head of the Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting Service under Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov, he still works in a similar department: since 2004, Seslavinsky has been the head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. He is still the same bibliophile and researcher of book culture.

However, not a single one of the “chicks of Nemtsov’s nest” managed to achieve such an extraordinary position as one traveling independently along the management ladder Vladimir Bulavin. While they “rose and fell” mainly “along the Nemtsov line,” with the exception of Sergei Kiriyenko, who became the first “statist” among his high-ranking “Moscow fellow countrymen,” and Mikhail Seslavinsky, who managed to occupy his own niche for decades to come, Bulavin moved through the state, as befits a security officer. Yesterday he received his next appointment, for which we congratulate him.

Customs gives the go-ahead. And, as they say, with God, Vladimir Ivanovich!

Photo: depdela.ru, kpfu.ru, contrpost.ru, kommersant.ru, ruwest.ru, kuban24.tv

Over the past month, players in the foreign economic activity market have been following the clash between two of Russia’s most important law enforcement agencies: the FSB, which in recent years has achieved recognition as the most influential, and the Federal Customs Service, on which half of the country’s budget depends.

As you know, the FSB Central Office reached out to the First Deputy Head of the Far Eastern Customs Sergei Fedorov. He was taken to the capital and accused of patronizing the business of the largest figure in the customs community of Siberia, Rodion Tikhonov. And shortly before this, several entrepreneurs were arrested for smuggling in Primorye, and along with them, the deputy head of the Vladivostok Sea Port customs post, Evgeniy Romanchenko, was injured on suspicion of bribes. That distant news began on February 20 and ended at the end of March. In parallel to this, similar events developed in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, where the regional FSB attacked the North-West Customs Department. We are from the beginning of March published those information reports, but the nuances that we understand today only decorate this fight.

It all started on March 2, when, at the annual meeting of the Federal Customs Service in Moscow, the Deputy Head of the North-Western Customs Administration (also the Head of the North-Western Operational Customs), Major General Alexander Bezlyudsky were awarded the medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 2nd class. And a few hours before this, operatives of the 2nd department (customs line) of the Economic Security Service of the FSB began a search in the office of the head of the Kingisepp customs, Sergei Slepukhin. So, when the head of the Federal Customs Service Vladimir Bulavin (by the way, Colonel General of the FSB) shook hands with Bezlyudsky, both, of course, were informed of the situation.

There is also a hidden irony in this sketch. The procedural order of the state is so structured that the award goes through all stages in the presidential administration only after appropriate checks in the security forces. And first of all, in the specialized divisions of Lubyanka and Liteiny, 4. That is, the day before, in the same 2nd department of the SEB, there was at least no objection.

The second wave was also cleverly designed. Or treacherous - depending on how you look at it. At seven o'clock in the morning on March 6, the same operatives came to the country house of Alexander Bezlyudsky with a search. Therefore, at 10 o’clock he could not be in the Administration building on Savushkina Street on the video selector with the same Head of the Federal Customs Service Bulavin. Therefore, Bulavin again received an information emotion regarding the North-West Customs Administration. Moreover, a search was already underway in Bezlyudsky’s office that morning.

Simultaneously, State Security came to the St. Petersburg apartments of Bezlyudsky’s two daughters, one of whom has three children. It’s not that common sense, but rather the practice of sophisticated combat, suggests that such events are not aimed at a specific effect, as is printed in search warrants, “the address may contain objects and documents of interest to the investigation.” This is a powerful element of psychological pressure. Like special forces officers who beautifully understand that no one is going to offer them any resistance. And it comes out, as at the front: “Comrade General, we are being attacked in all directions by superior forces.” If your moral and volitional strength is broken, then it’s time to retreat in an organized manner or flee chaotically.

At the same hours, counterintelligence receives information that Bezlyudsky’s wife left for Moscow in her personal car. Almost for the first time in the history of similar events involving high-ranking civil servants, the wife’s phone is detected, the traffic police of the Moscow region are sent to intercept, and three crews block her when approaching the capital. After which the 56-year-old lady, who was not formally detained, was actually locked in the salon for six hours. During this time, FSB officers are leaving St. Petersburg with utmost service zeal. Her car is officially searched. They find nothing and go back with angry disappointment.

And General Bezlyudsky at about 16:00 on March 6 was brought into the entrance of Liteiny, 4, from Shpalernaya Street, interrogated by the Investigative Service, then they politely made a face, and at about three in the morning on March 7 he left as a witness.

Only ex-employee of the North-Western operational customs Zakhar Sychev, who was also searched at the same time, was not released. He was detained and sent to house arrest on March 9, accused of transferring bribes, but in fact the situation is stalemate. According to the initial version of the investigation, Sychev transferred money to Bezlyudsky, but other than this version, it seems that there is nothing left in the case.

All that remains is what no one from the outside can notice. The initiator of the implementation was the head of the 2nd department of the SEB, FSB Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Sirotin. Naturally, such large-scale, planned actions were approved by the head of the SEB “customs” department, Colonel Yuri Gurenkov, from the head of the SEB, Colonel Andrei Yakovlev, and then everything was agreed upon by the head of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Alexander Rodionov. That is, operational information was reported, which was backed by confidence in achieving goals - at a minimum, the demolition of the leadership of the North-West Directorate, at a maximum - recruitment. In the intelligence service, both are considered indicators, unlike, for example, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where without charges being brought, everything loses statistical significance.

Based on the above, we see that only Slepukhin lost his nerve, and on March 19 he wrote his resignation letter. As for the head of the North-Western Directorate, Lieutenant General Alexander Getman, and his deputy, Major General Bezlyudsky, then, according to our data, they were in Moscow a couple of times after this epic. The first is with Bulavin, the second is with the deputy head of the Federal Customs Service, FSB Lieutenant General Anatoly Seryshev.

Indeed, there were a lot of rumors, and preliminary information about personnel decisions after this news, but I’ll tell you this, and you draw your own conclusions: if at the highest level they were sure that something was wrong, they would have told them to go long ago for free bread,” the interlocutor from the central office of the Federal Customs Service hinted to us.

[47news.ru, 03/15/2018, “Getman, get away”: Moscow advised the chief customs officer of the North-West to look for a job. But first Vladimir Putin must sign. The local forces were not comfortable creating a mess: they would not be able to influence the new candidate, which means that it is unlikely that someone under his control will come.

The other day, the head of the North-West Customs Administration, Alexander Getman, had an unpleasant conversation with the head of the Federal Customs Service, Vladimir Bulavin. As they say, Getman was recommended to look for a new job. At the moment we do not have information whether he wrote a report, but the rules of the game in this coordinate system do not imply stubbornness after such proposals.

If Getman writes a letter of dismissal, a rather lengthy procedure will be launched. Firstly, like most managers, he probably has a large supply of unspent vacation days. At this time, the head of the Federal Customs Service will send documents to the presidential administration, where a draft presidential decree will be prepared. In terms of time, we can talk about a month and a half. [...]

And on January 15, to the head of the Main Directorate for Combating Smuggling of the Federal Customs Service of Russia Andrey Yudintsev Alexander Bezlyudsky and the head of the department for combating economic customs crimes of the operational customs, Evgeny Aleshkin, were supposed to arrive. On March 12, Yudintsev politely asked Hetman about this in a letter, which was at the disposal of the editors. - insert K.ru]

Despite the fact that our acquaintance did not agree to authorize his comment, he allowed the author to provide statistics that were prepared for that very board on March 6, when they began to search Bezlyudsky.

I am reading out the dynamics for 2017 according to your management: the value of seized goods is 757 million rubles, which is 58.6% more than in 2016; additional accrual - 973 million rubles, which is 20.7% more than in the previous one; additional collection - 625 million, which is 124% more. Do you have time to record? Of course, there are many more indicators, but the rest will only confuse you.

From this we conclude that the capital either does not agree with the position of the regional FSB, or understands what is behind it. The market players themselves, who predictably did not want their names to be used, point to a specific point of aggravation of the intraspecific struggle. We also wrote about her. Then, on February 19, in Ivangorod, instead of cheap fuel pellets, goods were found in the cargo, subject to a serious duty, worth $400 thousand.

Here it is necessary to explain that the FSB, represented by specialized units, often demands loyalty. Such relationships are expressed not at joint meetings, where they mint the state approach, but in informal wishes, where everyone understands between the lines. For example, where not to look. There is no public attitude towards what happened FSB, we won’t get anything from the Federal Customs Service. Moreover, until a final procedural decision is made, no one in these departments will say anything, even to each other. Let the opinion be formed in both corners, but the rules of the game do not allow it to be expressed loudly.

Assuming that Alexander Bezlyudsky, to whom we have dedicated many lines over the past month, will not want to communicate with us, we prepared a question.

- Alexander Mikhailovich, do you understand where you came from?- the author managed to ask, quickly introducing himself.

“Yeah, not a boy,” he answered, immediately defending himself with the catchphrase: “Sorry, I don’t have time.”

So an uncomfortable time came between them - no peace, no war.

Evgeniy Vyshenkov