Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich (born March 20, 1963) — deputy of the City Duma, former two-term Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod. Deputy of the State Duma of the first, third, fifth, and sixth convocations (1993–1995, 1999–2002, 2010–2011, 2011–2016).

Resilient and unsinkable. Beloved by the people for his attention to voters' emotional needs.

Married, with three sons and a daughter.

The Nature of the Phenomenon

An emotional leader, a political victim of multiple use. An ethical-intuitive extravert — the "Hamlet" type.

A professional friend of the Nizhny Novgorod people. Initiator of unconventional entertainment for voters, such as the "Nadezhda" ("Hope") Lottery (from 1995)

Career

Born in the Sormovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod. Attended Secondary School No. 17 and Vocational Technical School No. 5 in Gorky.

From 1979, worked in the assembly and welding shop of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant as a repair mechanic for welding equipment.

From 1982 to 1984, served in the military (tank forces in Poland). In the army, he was a "armored vehicle repair specialist."

In 1984, worked at the Sormovsky District Internal Affairs Department.

In 1989, received a diploma from the All-Union Correspondence Law Institute (VYUZI), evening division, specializing in law.

From 1989 to 1994, worked as a lawyer at the Nizhny Novgorod Region Bar Association.

In December 1993, was elected a deputy to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, first convocation. Ran in Kanavinsky electoral district No. 120, Nizhny Novgorod Region. Was a member of the parliamentary groups "Stability" and "Liberal Democratic Union of December 12." In the State Duma, served on the Committee on International Affairs.

In February 1995, was elected Secretary-General of the All-Russian voters' movement "Soyuz Vesna" (Union Spring).

In 1995, was appointed Director-General of the closed joint-stock company "TV Station Seti-NN."

In 1997, won elections to the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma.

In December 1999, became a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, third convocation. Was a member of the parliamentary group "Narodny Deputat" (People's Deputy). In the State Duma, served on the Committee on Information Policy.

In September 2002, was elected to the post of Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod (with just over 77.5% of the vote).

In October 2005, he was re-elected as Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.

In January 2011, he became a deputy of the fifth convocation of the State Duma (after Valery Kornilov had stepped down from his deputy mandate ahead of schedule). He was a member of the United Russia faction. In the State Duma he served on the Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration, and Procedural Legislation.

Background

cited from Polit.NNOV.RU / Persons / by Sergey Kocherov, 03.10.2005

Ups and Downs

Vadim Yevgenyevich Bulavinov was born in 1963 in Gorky, in the working-class Sormovsky District. At the time, his father worked as a steelworker at a machine-building plant, and his mother worked at a childcare facility. Children from such families typically went to work at a factory after school, and young Bulavinov initially followed this tradition. After finishing school he enrolled in Vocational Technical School No. 5, and upon graduating took a job as a maintenance fitter in the assembly and welding shop at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant. In 1982, Bulavinov was called up for military service, served in the tank forces, and rose to the rank of company sergeant major. A year after returning to the plant, he decided to change his line of work and was assigned to the non-departmental security service of the Gorky Region Internal Affairs Directorate. Simultaneously with starting this new job — which would later be described in one of his campaign brochures as "service in special forces" — Bulavinov enrolled in the All-Union Law Correspondence Institute, in the evening division of the law faculty.

At this point a certain inconsistency appears in his official biography. Having by then started a family, Vadim Bulavinov was forced to take on extra work. He would later speak of himself with a measure of significance, saying that "unlike most of his classmates, Vadim Bulavinov did not look for a job as a night watchman or a janitor, but trained professionally as a tailor and was one of the first people in Nizhny Novgorod to start his own business." Well and good — all honest work dignifies a person, and creative work all the more so. What is puzzling, however, is how this tailoring business could be reconciled with Bulavinov's service in the non-departmental security force, or — in another version he gives — in the rapid-response company of the Gorky Internal Affairs Directorate. But be that as it may, the "tailor-commando" completed his correspondence studies at the law institute in 1990 and, by his own account, was — as one of the six best students in the cohort — invited to join the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Bar Association.

According to Bulavinov's official life story, in his three years of legal practice he "acquired extensive experience — advising the regional and city administrations, working with the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the Customs Directorate, and serving as legal counsel to the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka." It is rather difficult to verify who the future politician was actually advising and in what capacity, and accepting this information at face value is made harder by the fact that from one election to the next his biography underwent an ever more noticeable electoral varnishing — a smoothing over of the twists and rough patches of his life story. It is hardly surprising that his opponents in various elections sometimes offered their own account of his activities during that turbulent period, one that differed sharply from his own. Thus, practitioners of the "yellow press" genre tried to convince Nizhny Novgorod residents that in the early 1990s Bulavinov had been involved either in providing cover for underground dealers in non-ferrous metals or in serving the Sormovo criminal underworld, as a result of which he had allegedly attracted the attention of local security service officers who supposedly persuaded him to sign a cooperation agreement. Vadim Yevgenyevich responded to these accusations calmly, dismissing them as the machinations of his rivals and crediting himself with never having stooped to such methods of competition. Naturally, no proof of any unlawful activity by Bulavinov was ever produced, and the entire "criminal story" could be dismissed as a commissioned piece of black PR. Yet when comparing Bulavinov's "white" and "black" biographies, one is left with the strange feeling that either version has an equal chance of being the plain truth. Such were the times, and such was their protagonist.

All of that, however, belongs to electoral apocrypha; the real story of politician Bulavinov begins on 12 December 1993, when he was elected a deputy of the State Duma from the 120th Kanavinsky constituency. Since his victory came as a surprise, it naturally spawned many rumors, including those that formed the basis of the "criminal version." For example, Bulavinov's opponents were long unable to fathom how his people managed to collect the required thousands of voter signatures while remaining invisible to other signature-gatherers. A theory later emerged that, despite Governor Nemtsov officially backing Yudin in this constituency, Bulavinov was his true protégé. In this case, however, if Nemtsov was guilty of anything, it was only that his support in this constituency was purely declarative. Bulavinov made it into the Duma on his own merits — naturally with the help of his sponsors and campaign team. He made highly effective use of his appearance as a fine-looking young man straight out of a Russian folk tale, but also employed methods borrowed from Western campaign practices. For instance, the entry for his occupation on the election ballot read "practicing lawyer," which carried an air of appealing promise in itself. One of his most successful moves was appearing on the second television channel during the local advertising segment in the middle of a broadcast of the hugely popular soap opera Santa Barbara, where he earnestly conveyed that neither Mason nor the Capwells would solve Russians' problems — but he, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. One has to recall the conditions under which that first Duma campaign was fought to understand how such "outreach" to voters could produce the desired result. Bulavinov finished some 18,000 votes ahead of his nearest rival, yet still lost to the virtual candidate "against all" — which did not prevent him, under the law of the day, from becoming a Duma deputy.

Today it is difficult to recall precisely what Vadim Yevgenyevich accomplished in the first-convocation State Duma. It is known that he served on the budget committee and the committee on international affairs, and was a member of the Stability parliamentary group, from which, by his own account, the Our Home Is Russia movement emerged. He ostentatiously abstained from the vote of no confidence in the government, but eagerly took advantage of opportunities to travel abroad as part of parliamentary delegations, afterward dropping with significance: "I was recently discussing this matter at NATO's political headquarters…" From his time in that Duma, only two episodes are particularly remembered: his attempt to drag away the nationalist Nikolai Lysenko, who had attacked Gleb Yakunin, and a broadside from Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who accused Bulavinov of involvement in the murder of Sergei Skorochkin, to whom he had allegedly owed either 200,000 or 300,000 dollars. During the 1995 State Duma election campaign, Bulavinov naturally began showing up more frequently in Nizhny Novgorod, reminding his constituents of his existence. At the time he took credit for having persuaded the Security Council to give a positive assessment on funding the development and construction of ekranoplans, and for having done extensive work to extract 4 billion rubles from Russia's budget for the construction of a circus. He would return to these themes frequently in later campaign speeches, but ten years passed and Nizhny Novgorod still does not produce ekranoplans, while the local clowns, out of boredom, have drifted into politics.

Bulavinov considered himself the frontrunner in that campaign, fearing perhaps only Andrei Klimentyev, who was running for the State Duma from a Nizhny Novgorod remand prison, where he had landed thanks to his former friend Nemtsov in the "Navashino millions case." But trouble came to Vadim Yevgenyevich from the direction he least expected, in the form of a young and attractive woman named Olga Beklemishcheva. Nizhny Novgorod City Duma deputy Beklemishcheva managed to defeat State Duma deputy Bulavinov by outperforming him in direct communication with voters — talking to them about social issues that everyone understood. This favorably set apart the deputy from a working-class district from the young gentleman who, in his campaign video, showed off his athletic figure and surveyed the Volga expanses from the Kremlin with a proprietary air. Bulavinov lost to Beklemishcheva by nearly 21,000 votes and… fell into a tantrum, blaming everyone but himself for his defeat. For two years afterward he pursued legal action against his nemesis, tediously accusing her of having misled voters by concealing her Moscow Region residence registration. But all this flailing after the fact came to nothing. The life that had seemed to be going so splendidly appeared at that moment to lie in pieces.

From Shadow into Light

Regaining his lost ground did not come easily to Bulavinov. It seems that around this time the first grey hairs appeared in his well-groomed mane and in his distinguished beard. Only a year later did he make his presence felt at the city level, winning election to the City Duma from one of the constituencies in his native Sormovsky District — and even then only by edging out the "parachuted-in" businessman Karlyshev by a mere 334 votes. The incumbent deputies greeted his arrival in their midst with suspicion: Bulavinov became the only deputy to be denied his wish to work in the City Duma on a full-time professional basis. The most he achieved at that point was the chairmanship of the local self-government commission. Nevertheless, Bulavinov managed to use his modest post to establish feedback with his constituents, whose complaints and instructions began flowing to him through his assistants. Invaluable assistance to the ambitious deputy was provided by the TV company Seti-NN, which was popular in Nizhny Novgorod and had by then come under his control.

The story of the founding of this TV company, which played an important role in Vadim Bulavinov's life, goes back to the spring and summer of 1994, when a group of energetic young people who had recently joined together in the "Soyuz Vesna" (Spring Union) decided to create their own television channel to advance their political and business ambitions. Bulavinov, who was still a State Duma deputy at the time, was among them, though not in a leading role. Seti-NN pursued an aggressive strategy from the outset, attracting viewers and advertisers by every available means (at first they broadcast popular NTV programmes; later they filled the entire broadcast schedule, and subsequently began combining their own signature programmes with films and shows from REN-TV). By the time the company had grown popular — though it was deep in debt — most of its founders had gone their separate ways and no longer had time for it. Bulavinov turned out to be, in effect, the only one among them who recognized the long-term value of owning a television channel. Through a series of calculated moves that later drew fraud accusations from several former members of Soyuz Vesna, the enterprising deputy acquired a controlling stake in Seti-NN. Wasting no time, Bulavinov began adapting the channel's programming to his political objectives, all the more so as early 1997 brought the prospect of an early gubernatorial election in Nizhny Novgorod Region, in which he had decided to take part.

Vadim Yevgenyevich's foray into gubernatorial politics is perhaps remembered only for the fact that he was the first candidate in Nizhny Novgorod to specify concrete deadlines for fulfilling his campaign promises (for example, raising teachers' salaries across the region by 20% within a month). The 1997 gubernatorial election was dominated by the sharp contest between Nizhny Mayor Ivan Sklyarov and State Duma deputy from the KPRF faction Gennady Khodyrev, and no one paid Bulavinov any serious attention. This was partly fair, since in the first round Bulavinov received only 8.1% of the vote region-wide, though he managed 11.05% in Nizhny Novgorod itself. The candidate was then inordinately pleased with himself for having edged out the popular journalist Nina Zvereva at the finish and placed third, even though Khodyrev, who came second, was nearly 30 percentage points ahead of him. Flushed with satisfaction, Bulavinov turned up at a gathering of the region's influential figures who had assembled to discuss a joint plan of action ahead of the second round. There, however, he was met with a decidedly frosty reception, and the whole affair ended with a drunken scandal and the uninvited guest being shown the door. The Nizhny Novgorod political elite had not the slightest inclination at that point to regard this upstart as worthy of joining their ranks.

In 1997, Bulavinov ran into serious trouble over his controlling stake in Seti-NN. Reasonably well-founded claims against him began to be pressed by Abdulkhamid Sadekov, director of the closed joint-stock company Volga-Petroleum, who was systematically buying up shares in the television channel from former members of Soyuz Vesna. Matters reached the point where Lerman, the director of Seti-NN, who had sided with Bulavinov, put the company on a "siege footing," while Sadekov — whom gossip identified as a relative of Nemtsov's wife — went to court. It is impossible to say how this dispute would have been resolved through legal channels, because in the night of 10 to 11 October 1997, Sadekov was shot by unknown assailants while riding in his car in the Odintsovsky District of the Moscow Region. The removal of Sadekov's claims was objectively advantageous to Bulavinov, and for that reason many people in Nizhny Novgorod — then and afterward — made no secret of their belief that he had commissioned the crime. However, having an interest in eliminating a rival is one thing, while commissioning or organizing his elimination is another. Besides, Vadim Bulavinov does not quite fit the image of a "Don Corleone," possessing neither his life philosophy nor his organizational abilities. The oil businessman was most likely "commissioned" by entirely different people — but the criminal episode involving the Seti-NN shares stands as obvious confirmation of Proudhon's dictum that "behind every great fortune lies a crime."

After this episode, Bulavinov stepped back from the limelight on the Nizhny Novgorod political stage for a time, making no impression whatsoever during the dramatic mayoral elections in Nizhny Novgorod in the spring and autumn of 1998. Those who thought he would not return to "big politics," however, were mistaken about him. Vadim Yevgenyevich slowly but methodically built up his political capital. For instance, Seti-NN launched a programme called SOS that quickly gained a wide following: its hosts would travel to the sites of viewer complaints and, on camera, knock on the doors of housing office managers demanding answers on the grounds that "the people have a right to know." As soon as the 1999 State Duma election campaign got under way, the programme acquired a new pager that accepted complaints from residents under the name "Bulavinov." So when Vadim Bulavinov once again faced Olga Beklemishcheva in the Duma race in the Kanavinsky constituency, they seemed to have switched places. Bulavinov appeared in the role of the "people's candidate," working closely with his constituents, while Beklemishcheva looked like a "Moscow deputy" who had lost touch with the hopes of the masses and the interests of the local political elite. The outcome of their confrontation was practically a foregone conclusion, which makes Bulavinov's glaring carelessness all the more astonishing: he nearly had his candidacy invalidated due to the "unreliability" of 2,000 signatures he had submitted to the constituency electoral commission. He was saved at that point by Nizhny Mayor Yuri Lebedev, who persuaded him to withdraw the signatures and pay a deposit, and persuaded the commission to wait. In the end, Bulavinov won a convincing rematch, finishing 29,000 votes ahead of his former nemesis.

In the President's Service

Bulavinov had learned from the mistakes of his first stint in the Duma and did everything possible to consolidate his position. Having until then kept his distance from party affairs, Vadim Yevgenyevich played an active role in establishing the People's Deputy parliamentary group, in which he became first deputy chairman under Gennady Raikov. Bulavinov rejoined the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, now chaired by his "party colleague" Dmitry Rogozin. Through the quota-based vote among party factions and parliamentary groups, the Nizhny Novgorod deputy was elected to the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In his "pre-election biography," this routine event received a rather different framing: "Bulavinov's professionalism and parliamentary experience were recognized not only within his own deputy faction. On the basis of a general vote of the Duma, he was sent to work in Strasbourg…" What contribution Bulavinov made to building Russia's positive image, or to the work of the PACE legal committee, remains a mystery. Far more significant for his career was the fact that he was appointed as a trusted representative of Vladimir Putin — which in that same "pre-election biography" is presented as follows: "Before the 2000 presidential election, Putin personally approached Bulavinov with a request to become his trusted representative…" One can only assume that one of 450 Duma deputies did not deliberate long over whether to oblige the head of state and honor him with his trust at the election.

However, although Bulavinov is at times prepared to assert that the Vatican itself takes an interest in his person, he always has been and remains, at most, a regional politician. And even in that capacity he first made himself fully felt only in the 2001 Nizhny Novgorod Region gubernatorial election. That was arguably Bulavinov's most successful electoral campaign, even though he did not make it to the second round. Presenting himself during trips around the region as the trusted representative of the President — a title he treats as a kind of lifetime honorific — Vadim Yevgenyevich, slightly ahead of himself, was instilling in voters the idea that "the state is Putin, and the governor is Putin's trusted representative." As a result, Bulavinov's ratings kept rising, and even a considerable wave of black PR in media outlets belonging to his rival Dmitry Savelyev failed to halt his advance. But then what happened was the most unpleasant thing that can befall a candidate who not only presents himself as the ruling party's man but actually believes it: the party cynically sacrificed him, siphoning off nearly 3% of his votes, of which 2.3% were added to the tally of the incumbent governor Sklyarov. The decisive role in this was played by Volga Federal District Presidential Envoy Sergey Kirienko, who had his own reasons for keeping Sklyarov in power (see http://www.polit.nnov.ru/2003/12/29/kirienko/). Bulavinov, convinced he had been robbed — a conviction reinforced by the data of all the sociologists who had conducted exit polls — staged a wild scene in Kirienko's office, accusing him of violating prior agreements. Sergey Vladilenovich, by contrast, was calm and collected, consoling Vadim Yevgenyevich in the manner of a character from one of Vysotsky's songs who "says: 'Never mind, you're so young.'" Bulavinov half-slammed the door on his way out, calling on voters in the second round to vote against all candidates, and went off to nurse his wounded feelings at a seaside resort.

Political analysts disagree on what the outcome would have been had it been the momentum-building Bulavinov, rather than the past-his-peak Sklyarov, who faced Khodyrev in the second round. Some believe that in that case the ruling party would have consolidated around the younger candidate and his victory would have been beyond question. Others counter that by that point Bulavinov's ratings had begun to sag under the weight of negative coverage from television channels and newspapers hostile to him. Much would have depended on which of the two candidates — the younger and fresher Bulavinov or the more mature and experienced Khodyrev — voters would have perceived as the real, rather than nominal, master of the region. In my view, Khodyrev's chances looked more favorable in this regard at the time — and indeed he went on to become governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Less than a year after that election, the ruling party remembered the unjustly wronged Vadim Bulavinov and approached him with an important party assignment. Vadim Yevgenyevich was politely but insistently asked to enter the Nizhny Novgorod mayoral race and defeat Yuri Lebedev, who had become thoroughly unwelcome to the Volga Federal District envoy's office. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Bulavinov went into an election not of his own volition but at someone else's behest — that is, on orders from above. He had said on multiple occasions that the position of mayor held no appeal for him, since he aspired to be governor. Moreover, he had no personal reason to put a spoke in Lebedev's wheel, with whom he had a relationship of genuine trust. Yet the magic word "necessary," seemingly emanating from the very summit of power, went to his head and intoxicated his spirit. Evidently a factor was also the circumstance that Bulavinov had no prospects for advancement in the State Duma. Despite having cultivated a useful friendship with Vladislav Surkov and mastered the art of positioning himself in front of every Duma television camera at once, he had never become a figure of any real consequence in the Duma. This was confirmed by his zealous participation in lobbying for a bill to introduce criminal penalties for male homosexuality — a bill championed by his party superior Raikov (Rogozin, by contrast, declined that particular honor). Bulavinov even appeared on a popular television programme, explaining wide-eyed and with great passion to Yelena Khanga and Yelena Ishcheyeva why he was opposed to "Michurinite experiments" in sexual relations. It is said that after this performance, a rather indecent nickname became attached to him in the Duma — something no serious politician can afford. The time had come to change the field of his activities.

At first, the task of winning the mayoral election in Nizhny Novgorod seemed quite straightforward to Bulavinov and the forces behind him. Vadim Yevgenyevich had the highest starting approval rating and needed only to carry that popular goodwill across the finish line without spilling it along the way. But riding into the Kremlin on a white horse was not to be. What tripped him up was not Yuri Lebedev but Andrei Klimentyev — whom the authorities, after his failed gubernatorial bid, had hastened to declare a "political corpse." Whether Klimentyev had penetrated the secrets of white and black magic and resurrected himself, or whether Nizhny Novgorod residents deep down retained sympathy for him and were ready to take another chance, it became clear to everyone before the election who would lead the first round — and possibly win the whole campaign (see http://www.polit.nnov.ru/2004/08/12/klimentiev/). As a result, the authorities had the "notoriously infamous" businessman removed on a trumped-up pretext the day before the election — and in doing so they casually made use of Bulavinov himself, deploying in the court proceedings a certain Veta Vladimirova, Vadim Yevgenyevich's authorized representative. The 2002 mayoral election replayed the 2001 gubernatorial campaign for Bulavinov, only in reverse. He won, edging out Mayor Lebedev in the second round by 2,500 votes, having run the worst campaign of his life. In essence, he lost it three times over: before the election — to Klimentyev; and in both the first and second rounds — to the Nizhny Novgorod residents, the majority of whom voted against all candidates, regardless of what subsequently happened to their ballots in the quiet of the electoral commissions. And although Vadim Yevgenyevich did eventually ride into the Kremlin, his conveyance this time was not a horse but a donkey, and there was scarcely a lazy soul who didn't throw mud at him.

It often happens that someone who triumphs at the polls fails to live up to his voters' hopes. What never happens is that someone dragged into first place by his ears goes on to deliver results that inspire public jubilation. Vadim Bulavinov proved a rather mediocre city chief, despite the years of support he received from Sergei Kirienko, who, it must be said, did not shirk responsibility for the choice he had imposed on the city. In essence, a different outcome would have been hard to expect. Vadim Yevgenyevich is not a manager, not an administrator, and not a practical economic operator — he is a public politician. He is in his element only at the political podium, performing as a figurehead who commands general attention, while he wilts quickly in the routine of day-to-day municipal affairs, chasing off the boredom at the gym or by other means more traditional for a Russian man. His natural habitat is an election campaign — provided it does not get too rough — not the governance of a city of one and a half million where most people are not living but surviving. Giving a welcoming speech or cutting a ribbon at the opening of a new company office is one thing; making a responsible decision or walking out to meet elderly protesters demonstrating against the abolition of welfare benefits is quite another. The latter Vadim Yevgenyevich openly fears or simply dislikes, and so in every crisis he prefers to be as far from Nizhny Novgorod as possible. In short, the gods do not fire the pots — but only in Russia are bosses appointed on that very basis.

Is This Just the Beginning?

Vadim Bulavinov would probably have had little chance of being re-elected to a new term had it not been for changes entirely unrelated to anything he did. An experienced Moscow official, Valery Shantsev — a man who had eaten his fill of administrative and managerial work — was appointed to lead the Region, and the post of Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod unexpectedly lost much of its former appeal. For it soon became clear that under the current Governor it did not matter who was elected mayor, because the true head of the city would be … Shantsev. There are several reasons for this conclusion, and all of them are, so to speak, works in progress, since they lie not in finished results but in ongoing processes. I have already mentioned some of them (see http://www.polit.nnov.ru/2005/09/15/election/), but to understand the new reality it is enough to ask: "Why did the Governor, having publicly criticized the state of the city, so quickly turn from wrath to mercy and back Bulavinov?" Because he was told that Bulavinov's candidacy had been approved from above and must not be touched during the election? That is possible, but it is hardly likely that Putin, when making Shantsev the offer to lead Nizhny Novgorod Region, made it conditional on Bulavinov's re-election to a new term. Because Sergei Kirienko, the presidential envoy, and Evgeny Lyulin, head of the local United Russia branch, asked him very nicely? Well, perhaps they did ask, but Shantsev would hardly have heeded their requests had Bulavinov's election not served his own designs for running the city. Because Valery Pavlinovich simply had no time to build up his own candidate and was cornered with no way out? Perhaps — except that if one is going to compare Shantsev to a wolf surrounded by red marker flags, it somehow seems to me that such a barrier would not have stopped him.

Meanwhile, Shantsev's preference for Bulavinov may well be rooted in a clear understanding that a nominal leader of this kind is a genuine windfall for the master of the Region, if he knows how to make use of him. A mayor who is the face of the city but not its head will be unable to defend any development program (because he has no strategy), any working priorities (because he has no priorities), or any investment projects (because no one will put their money behind him). All one needs to do is appoint him a capable deputy who knows how city management works, and bring order to tax collection, rental payments, and transfers to the city budget — after which one can sleep soundly. Of course, from time to time responsible decisions will have to be made, as in the case of the hepatitis A epidemic whose epicenter emerged in the Sormovo District — the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod's "home turf." On that occasion Shantsev was forced to take personal control of the neglected situation while Bulavinov was in the State Duma lobbying the federal council of United Russia to endorse his candidacy for re-election. But these are the costs of the "strong governor — weak regional-capital mayor" tandem, costs that must be accepted by definition. And should Vadim Bulavinov, as occasionally happens with him, allow himself to "kick back" against his new superior, Valery Shantsev will not need long to bring him to his senses. With a city budget of 7.5 billion rubles against the city's minimum need of 15 billion, the Governor can easily put the Mayor in the position of Panikovsky before Koreyko, shrieking desperately: "Give me a million! Give me a million!" It is no accident that ahead of these elections a joke made the rounds in Nizhny: "Vadik, why are you running your campaign on budget money?" — "Well, $10 is $10, you can always use it." And by autumn 2007 nothing would prevent the head of the Region from nudging the right people to send Bulavinov to the State Duma as the head of the regional United Russia list.

Portrait Sketches

  • He was friends with the late Sergei Skorochkin. He was questioned as a witness in the case of Skorochkin's murder. He was also suspected of involvement in the murder of Abdul-Khamid Sadekov, but no formal charges were brought against Bulavinov. (Sadekov had bought the Spring Union party from Bulavinov. On the morning of the day Sadekov was to be elected General Secretary of the party at a congress in Moscow, he was killed.)
  • "In essence, Vadim Bulavinov is a perfectly worldly, courteous, and charming man — a modern-day commoner-intellectual who can find common ground with the aesthete-intellectual Surkov and with a plain factory hand from Sormovo alike. There is something about him of an appealing character from the Russian folk tale — Ivanushka the Fool, who is not foolish at all and can on occasion appear in the role of a prince or pass himself off as a legendary bogatyr warrior. The trouble is that characters like this obtain the Firebird, vanquish the three-headed Zmey Gorynych, and discover boundless treasure for the public good only within the space of fairy tales. In real life, Bulavinov belongs to the type of 'new managers' who are in fact the heirs of Soviet-era officials. Like their predecessors, they move easily from one executive post to another because it makes no difference to them what they are running — a market or an institute, a city of a million or an oil-and-gas pipeline. They yield to the old officials in thoroughness and competence but surpass them in the ability to present themselves and in the readiness to switch from one party to another. One might say that Vadim Bulavinov has earned the right to be appointed Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod." Sergei Kocherov, Polit.nnov.ru

Principal Activities

  • Locksmith work, tank repair, guarding fruit-and-vegetable depots and wine factories, law practice, entrepreneurship, legislative work, serving as mayor.

State Awards

Medal of the Order "For Services to the Fatherland," 2nd class.

Membership in Public, Academic, and Other Organizations

Member of the "United Russia" party.

Hobbies

Scuba diving, motorcycling, alpine skiing.

Interesting Facts

  • On 19 March 1995, on Berezovskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod, Bulavinov's car was robbed. Four young men aged 16–18 stole from the elegant Honda, which was parked outside one of the buildings, a leather coat, $800, 450,000 rubles (of that era), two credit cards from Moscow banks, as well as his driving licence and vehicle documents. The car itself the robbers left behind.
  • On 10 September 1995, Vadim Bulavinov took part in a brawl initiated by deputy Nikolai Lysenko (Lysenko had torn a cross from Gleb Yakunin and was beating him with it. Evgenia Tishkovskaya came to Yakunin's aid. LDPR members led by Zhirinovsky rushed to help Lysenko; Zhirinovsky bellowed as he charged: "Strangle him! Tear off his cassock!"). Bulavinov attempted to defend Evgenia Tishkovskaya from Vladimir Zhirinovsky's attack. [1]
  • On 27 November 1995, Bulavinov put forward the idea of holding a "Hope" lottery for voters on 17 December. The idea found no support from the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation. The Central Electoral Commission does not consider it possible to hold any lotteries for voters. Electoral legislation makes no provision for games of chance, nor for any activities other than voting and monitoring the conduct of elections, during the voting period. [2] (archive)
  • On 22 April 2002, Bulavinov and two other State Duma deputies, Gennady Raykov and Dmitry Rogozin, introduced to the State Duma a draft law proposing the addition of a new article to the Criminal Code, under which "the unnatural satisfaction of a man's sexual need with a man (sodomy) shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of one to five years." The corresponding legislative initiative, in Bulavinov's words, was aimed at strengthening the institution of the family, public morality, and the health of citizens. (Strana.ru, 22 April 2002)
  • On 12 March 2013, Bulavinov, citing "informed sources," wrote in his microblog that the Prosecutor General's Office would, by 16 March, submit to the lower house a motion to strip him of his parliamentary immunity. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICR) intended to bring criminal charges against the former Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod in connection with the affair surrounding the municipal share in the Fantastika shopping center. The ICR's petition to strip deputy Bulavinov of his immunity and institute criminal proceedings against him was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office at the end of January. According to the law-enforcement version of events, in 2005, while serving as mayor, he transferred a plot of land to the companies Start-Stroy and Delta-Stroy for the construction of a shopping complex, exempting the companies from the payments prescribed by local legislation — 7% of the future center's value. In exchange, as ICR spokesman Vladimir Markin explained, Bulavinov's son Evgeny was included among the founders of the two companies with a 22.25% stake. According to investigators, the "deal" caused damage to the Nizhny Novgorod city budget in excess of 600 million rubles. [3]

According to Unverified Reports

« I know about the very start of Bulavinov's service in the militia under the USSR)

He patrolled the vegetable depots (near Fedoseyevna), and he had a stylish cape-blanket) By the way, he failed to prevent a robbery at one of the vegetable depots, for which he received a reprimand.

And then he went to study
 »


In City Folklore

« So Bulkin flies back from a business trip and his official car hasn't been sent — he decides to take a taxi…

He walks up to a cab driver:

— Can you get me to the Kremlin in 10 minutes?

— Nah… More like 40 minutes…

— Damn, I really need it! I'll give you $200!

— Alright, get in…

So, 10 minutes later, through some back alleys and rough tracks, he delivers him to the Kremlin… As Bulkin gets out, he says to the cabbie:

— That was fast — and no escort! Tell me which way you went!

— No… I won't tell you — you'll go and lay cobblestones there too…
 »


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