“The head of security at Putin’s dacha will join the government of the Leningrad region.” Something like this…

“The head of security at Putin’s dacha will join the government of the Leningrad region.” Approximately such headlines in the media brought into the media field the figure of Valery Pikalev, whom Mikhail Mishustin has now appointed head of the entire Federal Customs Service of the country. The headlines we are talking about date back to November 2018, when the 53-year-old deputy chairman of the government of the Novgorod region, Pikalev, who was still practically unknown to the information field, became the vice-governor of the Leningrad region for security, replacing Andrei Burlakov, who was completely lost in corruption scandals.

However, Pikalev did not work in the civil service in the Novgorod region for long, about six months. Before that, at least since 2014, he headed Directorate “B” of the Presidential Security Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia, which is responsible for protecting Putin’s Valdai residence. That is, he had direct contact with the first person of the state.
Pikalev lasted a year in the government of the Leningrad region, noting his lack of contact, closedness, and rather harsh and uncompromising, and absolutely non-working, position on issues of garbage reform in the region, which was the responsibility of his bloc.

In 2019, Pikalev moved to the government of St. Petersburg to the position of head of the governor’s administration. However, he still remained an extremely non-media personality and appeared on the information agenda mainly in matters of restoring the infrastructure of Mariupol, which were supervised by the government of St. Petersburg.
The appointment of Pikalev to the post of head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia was perceived by competent interlocutors of the Cheka-OGPU with some bewilderment. He is characterized as a good performer, but is not at all considered an independent figure, self-sufficient for such a post.
“It was believed that Pikalev had a close acquaintance with the deceased ex-head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Evgeny Zinichev, from the time of his service in the FSB. But, as you understand, at the moment this is not a practical recommendation. It is not clear who is moving it now. And so – a simple warrior, a watchdog. Apparently, a reliable person is needed, and the issue of competence will be filled by deputies,” commented Pikalev’s former colleague in the St. Petersburg administration.

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Indeed, at the moment there is no need to talk about Valery Ivanovich’s experience in customs matters. He was born in 1968 in the Kalinin, and now Tver region, in 2002 he graduated from the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg, before and after his studies he was in the military.

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