David Adamia, who “regulates” Smolny’s personnel policy, is losing his bureaucratic influence. "Fixer" from Smolny David Adamia

Against the backdrop of the rapidly approaching elections for the governor of St. Petersburg, a new corruption scandal. So the head of the staff of the governor of St. Petersburg, David Adamia, was suspected of secret possession restaurant business, a correspondent of The Moscow Post was told in opposition circles.

The chief of staff of the administration of the governor of St. Petersburg, David Adamia, is losing his position in the office. Interlocutors in Smolny inform Bezdukhovnosti about this. This is also evidenced by the harsh criticism that at the last government meeting the governor subjected to the head of the Property Relations Committee, Yulia Ludinova, who is considered Adamia’s creature.

At a meeting of Smolny on April 12, Georgy Poltavchenko criticized the work of the Property Relations Committee and threatened sanctions, including the dismissal of its head, Yulia Ludinova. Ludinova was confronted at the meeting by the executive director of the Union of Small Enterprises, Vladimir Menshikov, who said that representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are faced with delays by the KIO in responding to requests. Ludinova is also actively criticized by the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg, Alexander Ambrosimov. Poltavchenko, in response, instructed Yulia Ludinova to eliminate delays in the work of the committee and stated that from now on, if there is a delay of more than 10 days when working with a request, the responsible specialist will be fired, and after three such dismissals, the head of the department herself will leave her post.

Yulia Ludinova is considered the creature of the chief of staff of the administration of Governor David Adamia. In addition to her, it is believed that the people lobbied by Adamia for their positions are the chairman of the finance committee, Alexey Korabelnikov, and the chairman of the investment committee, Irina Babyuk. The latter is regularly blamed for the deterioration of the investment climate in St. Petersburg and inactivity. At different times, other Smolny officials were also called Adamia’s henchmen. For example, the head of the youth policy committee, Nikita Alexandrov, now working as deputy head of the Moscow region.

David Adamia was born on August 11, 1983 in the city of Sukhumi. He came to St. Petersburg in 2012, as he emphasizes, at the personal invitation of the governor. Before that, Adamia worked in Moscow, was a co-owner of the capital's real estate agency Tower Realty, and was also involved in the development of the advertising company PrimeCom LLC. In St. Petersburg, he was assigned to the position of adviser to the governor on youth policy, and in October 2012 he took the position of chief of staff of the governor.

Causes:

In 2014, the magazine “City 812” placed David Adamia in 10th place in the ranking of the influence of St. Petersburg officials based on the results of 2013. There he was called a “semi-mythical” man, and the origin of his influence was attributed to the fact of his friendship with the son of Georgy Poltavchenko. Adamia uses his unofficial power to facilitate the appointment of the “necessary” people to certain positions in Smolny.

David Adamia's restaurant business is also widely known. He runs Georgian restaurants in the Khinkalnaya on Neva chain. This he not only does not hide, but also emphasizes in every possible way, giving the establishments the image of places where influential officials and businessmen meet to conduct business negotiations.

“We’ll meet at David’s,” these are the words used to schedule business meetings in this respectable establishment. After all, everyone in St. Petersburg knows the name of the real owner of the khinkal shop - the chief of staff of the Governor of St. Petersburg, David Adamia. His status as a civil servant and scrupulous attitude to the letter of the law do not allow him to manage the restaurant directly, so formally his long-time business partner Alexander Raevsky became the general director of Petersburg Alliance LLC. Although initially the option of a business partnership with Nikita Alexandrov, David’s longtime protégé, who recently returned from the army, where he left the post of chairman of the youth policy committee, was considered. But Alexandrov returned to the civil service again, which does not allow him to do business,” writes TheMorningNews.

Consequences:

Now there is a process of weakening the positions of David Adamia. Which could result in the dismissal of people affiliated with it from the city government. The reasons for this process are unknown to the Spiritless. Perhaps it is based on Adamia’s personal conflict with the governor, his son, or vice-governor Alexander Govorunov.

Against the backdrop of the rapidly approaching elections for the governor of St. Petersburg, a new corruption scandal has broken out in Smolny. Thus, the head of the apparatus of the governor of St. Petersburg, David Adamia, was suspected of secretly owning a restaurant business, a correspondent of The Moscow Post was told in opposition circles.

David Adamia “rose up” in personnel appointments

The administration of St. Petersburg is trying to move the elections to Legislative Assembly Northern capital from 2016 to 2015. Thus, Smolny is trying to divert the election campaign into State Duma, which is due to take place in 2016, and to the local parliament. The Chief of Staff of the Governor of St. Petersburg, David Adamia, is working on the issue of the transfer. So far, the deputies are resisting pressure from Smolny, this is not beneficial to either the local " United Russia", neither to the speaker Vyacheslav Makarov, who has recently strengthened his influence in the party by achieving the removal of the former vice-governor of the city from the post of head of the executive committee of "edra" Vasily Kichedzhi.

David Adamia is trying to take a position that allows him to lobby for the most important personnel and image issues. By pitting the industry clans of the governor’s team against each other and conducting shadow intrigues, taking advantage of his position as a confidant, he “promotes” the people he needs to Smolny and passes off the governor’s decisions as his own.

This 31-year-old young man came from Moscow to become an adviser to the governor, and then to the chief of staff. In just three years of holding official positions, David Adamia reduced Smolny officials to shaking hands and nervous tics. Being a close person of the team of the mayor of the Northern capital and taking advantage of the condescending, almost paternal attitude of the governor, David Adamia constantly emphasizes his own importance among government officials.

The difference between the governor's chief of staff and heads of committees, district heads, vice governors and the governor himself is the lack of the right to sign key documents and responsibility for decision-making. The function of the governor’s chief of staff is to supervise the mayor’s schedule and manage document flow. David Adamia assesses the significance of the appeals coming to the governor’s desk depending on the loyalty of the leaders who submitted the appeals to him. Sometimes they have to wait for several hours for an audience after Adamia’s traditional afternoon arrival at work.

Today he is fighting for influence on gubernatorial decision-making with two figures rapidly gaining momentum: the former minister who recently came to Smolny Igor Slyunyaev(changed his last name to Albina) and former leader Northwestern branch of Sberbank of Russia by the first vice-governor Alexander Govorunov. Unlike many officials, these two do not have to ask David Adamia for the opportunity to meet with the mayor. Moreover: formally David Adamia is subordinate Alexandra Govorunova, Head of the Governor's Administration. Having started his career in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 2012, David Adamia did not receive any of the committees as a resource for direct control. He infiltrated the circle of the then first vice-governor Igor Divinsky to obtain his assets for resource management. However, after a split among the vice-governors, which finally took shape by 2013, David Adamia received a “turnaround” from “ eminence grise“Smolny and infiltrated the apparatus of his opponent, Vasily Kichedzhi. During the non-public activities of the mayor, David Adamia began to call himself “the main PR man of Smolny,” threatening his opponents with PR reprisal. Then, due to his age, he offered his assistance in recruiting personnel in the field of youth policy city: Vasily Kichedzhi, as vice-governor, oversaw the spheres of culture, education, science, physical education and sports, press and youth.

Despite the dying out of the blogosphere in principle, David Adamia tried to develop already dead direction of blogging, organizing a meeting for St. Petersburg bloggers with the governor in August 2012 in the Hermitage. For loyalty and good behavior, they all received an iPad as a souvenir. True, the bloggers were not imbued with special love and friendship for either the chief of staff or his head, immediately revealing in their posts about last meeting bribery story. Already in April 2014 Igor Divinsky was removed from the post of first vice-governor, managing, however, due to long-standing friendship with Poltavchenko, remain in Smolny in the position of vice-governor in charge of issues of interaction with federal structures, including on the issue of relations with Crimea. In addition, Divinsky oversaw a number of new areas, thereby strengthening his position.

The second area of ​​work - the youth sphere - became for David Adamia the subject of commercial and political interests. From youth tent camps like Seliger, various youth councils and communities, children of parents with either above-average business or influential positions began to be selected.

Thus, in May 2012, 23-year-old Nikita Aleksandrov, who had connections through his parents with the Pharmacor company, was appointed to the position of chairman of the Committee on Youth Policy of St. Petersburg. Together with him, David Adamia began, using his influence on the governor, to create his own reserve of young and promising personnel - the Youth Collegium. According to the decree of the government of St. Petersburg new structure received the status of an advisory body under the governor. The same decree determined the selection procedure and the list of real leaders in Smolny who were to form the convocation. The Youth Board included 65 young people and girls, then thematic commissions were formed from them: on culture, on sports, on youth entrepreneurship, and so on. Members of the board for the development of youth projects have the opportunity to communicate with Smolny structures, receiving information from administration departments, which then goes to David Adamia’s desk. Once a quarter, young people have the opportunity to communicate with the governor on issues compiled and reviewed by Adamia. Imagining, for example, something beneficial to someone investment project, the youth tells Poltavchenko about all its advantages and receives a completely official protocol with instructions to specific departments to implement it.

Recruitment to the Youth College is carried out every two years, so that at a certain period, distinguished young people can either remain in its composition, receive promising positions in authorities or government institutions, or permanently lose the ability to access the first person.

Thanks to his influence on Georgy Poltavchenko, David Adamia’s most devoted and knowledgeable people in financial and lobbying issues receive the status of advisers to the governor, and then may well apply for specific positions in Smolny. Thus, Nikita Aleksandrov, at the age of 25, became deputy head of the Moskovsky district of St. Petersburg, a district with a population of 252 thousand people. The head of the Youth Collegium, Rostislav Shipitsyn, received management of one of the state unitary enterprises in the field of entrepreneurship and the consumer market - the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution "Center for Development and Support of Entrepreneurship." More for promotion personal status David Adamia credits himself with appointing Yulia Ludinova, adviser to the governor on economic issues, as head of the City Property Management Committee.

In order to become the head of a committee or a deputy of the Legislative Assembly, you must have a reserve of 25-35 million rubles, depending on the importance of the department. To become a deputy - 10 million. Head of a department and head of a government agency - 3-5 million rubles. Entry into the unofficial personnel reserve in the absence of direct lobbying - up to a million rubles.

Having access to documents for official use and other classified information, David Adamia built relationships with a number of media outlets interested in receiving “leaks” of operational information. Thanks to this, he ended up in seventh place in the ranking of the influence of Smolny officials, while having neither power, nor trust, nor respect in the city.

The system of long-term planning and promotion of “our” people is aimed at reserving positions after the departure of the entire current Smolny team after five years of Poltavchenko’s work as governor. This attempt to form their own reserve of henchmen “in the name of the governor” - children of influential parents: major officials and businessmen who do not directly contact the governor’s chief of staff to resolve their issues contrary to the legal procedure - has already caused a scandal in the city.

Alexey Sevostyanov