The other day, blogger Valya Carnival, during a trip to the region where she was born, tore the roads to smithereens. Quote: “The road is just brutal, hell! Imagine, I’m 21 years old. For as long as I can remember, this road has been like this!” But the regional Ministry of Transport has a different position on this matter. The department reports: at the end of the winter season, 313 thousand square meters of potholes were identified on local roads, of which 303 thousand have been eliminated to date, and the remaining 10 thousand square meters have been eliminated by June 1. Apparently, the blogger and the Ministry of Transport of the Rostov Region are talking about different roads and, probably, realities.
In the same reality, along with the blogger, are local residents who have been fighting with the authorities for years for the right to drive on a high-quality road surface. In Rostov social networks there are daily messages about holes and potholes on the roads, which drivers end up in and are subsequently forced to repair their cars due to impassability. In contrast to the daily negative comments from Rostovites about the situation on the roads, Don parliamentarians recently reported on their work over the last five years. And they have a different opinion on this matter. Deputies are confident that large-scale implementation of infrastructure projects has been carried out, which supposedly bring the subject to a qualitatively different standard of living.
And if the opinions and requests of ordinary people to repair roads of regional and municipal importance can simply be ignored, then what about the president? Vladimir Putin recently had the misfortune of passing through the Rostov region on his way to Donbass. The head of state was very dissatisfied with what he saw. Quote: “Not only will it be impossible to get through there, it will soon be impossible to get through there. Firstly, everything is narrow, and secondly, there is practically no road there. I don’t even know how private transport gets through there. There is an urgent need to restore order there.”
However, the situation has not changed to this day. Because the Rostov Ministry of Transport, which literally monthly looks for contractors for the construction and repair of roads, on an ongoing basis gives preference to the same market players – road oligarch Pavel Rogachkin and his comrades, who own the lion’s share of companies in this area. Systematic identification of cartels does not lead to anything other than publications in the media and telegram channels. The roads remain at the same level as 10-15 years ago.
When a situation repeats once, it’s a coincidence; when it occurs week after week, it’s a system. Officials of the Rostov region systematically do not want to see problems that only the lazy have not pointed out to them. And for them, as history has already shown, no one decree: neither local residents, nor a blogger, nor the president.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
