Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

The struggle for power in the Urals 213In the meantime Rossel’s lobbying of the federal authorities began to bearfruit. First, he was granted the possibility of running for a third term, andsecond, as the campaign for the mayoral election campaign commenced,United Russia endorsed Osintsev as their official candidate (although he hadnot previously been a member of the party), and not Chernetsky, despite thelatter being deputy head of their regional organization. Chernetsky as aresult was effectively marginalized and snubbed by federal United Russia, aswere his allies who had constituted the United Russian fraction on theOblast Assembly.However, the problem facing Osintsev’s future campaign was that it lackeda major issue to campaign on, beyond Osintsev’s personal appeal. The previousyear the city had been voted the most flourishing regional capital,winning the ‘golden rouble’ award for financial-economic regeneration, andhad successfully launched the large-scale Urals-Siberia Exhibition in July.The one area which Osintsev could potentially use in a future mayoralcampaign was the Strategic Plan, for which he had been the lead official inits early stages, as First Deputy Mayor for the Economy. 24The conflict over the city Strategic PlanThe Strategic Plan was a major theme in the political and administrative lifeof Ekaterinburg in 2000-3, the most intense period of region–city rivalry.The issue acquired a highly symbolic status as it provided an arena for bothcooperation (in the early stages) and conflict (in the later stages) between cityand region. The Plan’s preparation mobilized a substantial part of the city’selite and civil society at the same time as projecting the city’s image to awider audience at federal level and other large cities in the Federation. 25 Thestrategy development process was supported by a UK bilateral project, forwhich the authors of this chapter were responsible. 26Work had begun on the Strategic Plan for Ekaterinburg (intended to guidedevelopment until 2015) in 1999 not long after the publication of the StPetersburg City Strategy, seen as the first modern city strategic plan in theRussian Federation. Osintsev presided over a group of academics and localconsultants who were in favour of moving Ekaterinburg away from its traditionalreliance on defence industry and towards a ‘twenty-first century’post-industrial commercial future, capitalizing on its location on theEurasian overland trade route. 27Each of the two main political forces seeking to run the city for the nextfour years will be presenting the electorate with its own developmentplan … the city authorities think that the Urals capital should become acommercial-financial, entertainment and conference centre on theborder of Europe and Asia … Mayor Chernetsky himself states that hisplan is based on the experience of the British city of Birmingham whichhas changed over the last thirty years from being an industrial city to a