Ostrovsky, Alexey Vladimirovich

Born on January 14, 1976 in Moscow .

He began his career as a photojournalist and stringer of foreign publications. He worked in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets ^[1] .

From 1994 to 2003, he worked as an assistant to Vladimir Zhirinovsky , head of his Duma secretariat ^[2] , press secretary of the LDPR ^[1] .

In 1995, Ostrovsky’s fate became interested in Pavel Pavlikovsky , who was preparing the documentary “Traveling with Zhirinovsky” for the BBC ^[3] . Later, Alexey Ostrovsky served as the prototype of the main character of Pavlikovsky's film “ Stringer ”, which was released in 1998 ^[4] .

State Duma Elections 1999

In September 1999, the LDPR party put forward a federal list of candidates for deputies in the State Duma elections scheduled for December 19, 1999. The 23-year-old Ostrovsky was included in the Central Group regional group under number 5. However, on October 11, the CEC refused to register the LDPR list due to inaccurate information about the property of 82 candidates. On October 13, an extraordinary congress of the Liberal Democratic Party was held, where the electoral bloc "Zhirinovsky Bloc" was created. A new list of candidates was nominated from the block, where Ostrovsky was also included - was included in the Central Group regional group under number 3. ^{[5] The} federal part of this list contained the maximum possible number of candidates - 18. After registering the block list on November 2, it turned out that 71 candidates, including Ostrovsky, are simultaneously on two lists - the LDPR and the Zhirinovsky Bloc. On December 4, the CEC removed them all from the LDPR list, and on December 9 the CEC finally removed LDPR from registration.

On October 11, 1999, on the eve of the Duma elections , the Central Election Commission, on the basis of the inaccuracy of the data provided on the property of the candidates, as well as the presence on the federal list of candidate No. 2, the Krasnoyarsk businessman wanted by Anatoly Bykov, refused to register the LDPR with its federal list of candidates for deputies State Duma ^[6] . Then, in 2 days, LDPR candidates and members of the Spiritual Revival Party of Russia and the Russian Free Youth Union approved at the extraordinary congress of the LDPR a new electoral bloc - Zhirinovsky’s Bloc with a new federal list of candidates. In the December 1999 elections, the Zhirinovsky Bloc gained 5.98% and received 17 seats in the State Duma of the 3rd convocation. In single-member districts, party candidates were not elected ^[7] .

2000 - 2003 years

In 2000, Ostrovsky graduated from Moscow State Open University (MGOU) , faculty of world economics.

Until 2003, he was an activist in the youth organization of the LDPR party. He worked as a correspondent in the newspapers Moskovsky Komsomolets , Evening Moscow , Komsomolskaya Pravda , as well as in foreign media . He was an assistant to the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He headed the Press Service and the International Administration of the LDPR faction in the State Duma .

In 2003 he graduated from MGIMO (Law) ^[8] .

Member of the CEC of the Russian Federation (2003)

On August 1, 2003, the LDPR party decided to replace Viktor Kornienko, member of the CEC with an advisory vote, with Alexei Ostrovsky. On August 27, 2003 Ostrovsky became a member of the Central Election Commission with a casting vote (from the "Zhirinovsky Bloc").

State Duma Deputy

In early September 2003, the LDPR put forward lists of candidates for the State Duma elections of the 4th convocation on December 7, 2003. The top three included Vladimir Zhirinovsky, retired FSB colonel Pavel Chernov and 27-year-old graduate student at MGIMO Alexei Ostrovsky. ^[9] However, a week later Chernov was replaced by the son of Zhirinovsky Igor Lebedev, and Ostrovsky moved to second place on the list. ^[10] In the election, the party received 11.45% of the vote, thus Ostrovsky received a deputy mandate. In Godum, he became Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, a member of the Commissions on Mandate and Deputy Ethics and on the study of the practice of ensuring human rights and fundamental freedoms, and control over their ensuring in foreign states ^[2] .

In 2007, he was re-elected deputy of the State Duma on a federal list, in which he headed the Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots ^[8] . At the LDPR congress, which took place on September 13, 2011, he was nominated as a candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the sixth convocation under number 2 in the federal part of the list of candidates ^[11] . December 4, 2011 was elected. On December 21, 2011, at the first meeting of the new Duma, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations ^[8] .

Governor of the Smolensk Region

April 20, 2012, after the resignation of the governor of Smolensk region Sergey Antufiev , by decree of the President of Russia he was appointed interim head of the region. United Russia also proposed Ostrovsky’s candidacy for governor ^[12] .

On April 25, 2012, the President of Russia submitted the candidacy of Alexei Ostrovsky to the Smolensk Regional Duma for approval as governor of the Smolensk region ^[13] . On April 26, the Smolensk Regional Duma approved him as governor by secret ballot unanimously ^[14] .

During his leadership of the region, Ostrovsky formed the first coalition administration in Russia, in which representatives of the political parties of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Communist Party and United Russia took seats. ^[15]

On May 18, 2015, at his own request, he was relieved of his duties by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and was appointed interim. Vladimir Putin supported Ostrovsky’s decision to run for governorship in 2015 ^[16] . Ostrovsky gained more than 65% of the vote and re-assumed the post of governor of the Smolensk region on September 28, 2015 ^[17] .

Alexey Ostrovsky is a member of the Supreme Council of the LDPR.

In 2017, Vladimir Zhirinovsky announced that if he was elected president of the Russian Federation, he would make Ostrovsky the prime minister ^[18] .

As of April 2013, Alexey Ostrovsky owned a 50 percent stake in the trading company LLC Belrusbrand. According to the press service of the administration of the Smolensk region, this enterprise has not been operating since 2006 ^[19] . On June 9, 2014 Belrusbrand was excluded from the register register by the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service No. 46 ^[20] .

According to the declarations provided, Alexei Ostrovsky’s income amounted to 55.3 million rubles in 2014 and 1.9 million rubles in 2015 ^[21] . Such a significant increase in revenue in 2014 is associated with the sale of apartments in Moscow ^[22] .

Wife - Nadezhda Aleksandrovna (born 1973). Has three daughters ^[2] .

The young governor is in good shape, playing table tennis. He is fond of reportage photography. ^[23]

In 1993, Ostrovsky produced a report on child prostitution in Moscow by order of Time magazine. This episode received publicity due to the fact that the Washington Post later pointed out the staged nature of the shooting. On September 11, 1993, the Washington Post published an article about the incident, which based on data from the press service of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate , stated that “the report in Time magazine was falsified, and the photographer admitted in an interview that he was not sure that children are prostitutes ” ^{[24] [25] [26]} . Journalists found heroes of the material - two 11-year-old boys, one of whom was disguised as a girl during the filming. The children stated that Ostrovsky paid them and directed the entire report from beginning to end ^[27] .

On June 1, 2012, Alexey Ostrovsky appointed Vladimir Stepchenkov, the head of the Smolensk Department of Health, who previously held the position of Director General of Smolensk-Pharmacy OJSC. The new head of Smolensk-Pharmacy OJSC Igor Bogatov noted that as a result of Stepchenkov’s actions in the form of “various frauds, creating gray schemes” and bankruptcy attempts, the company “created a financial hole worth more than 100 million rubles.” Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov He also criticized this appointment, noting: “It is necessary to find out how a person who has not closed, but only suspended criminal cases was appointed to the post of head of the health department.” Kabanov also pointed out that the prosecutor's office needed to “issue a warning to the governor” ^[28] .

In the ranking of political influence of the leaders of 83 Russian regions compiled by the Agency for Political and Economic Communications, Alexey Ostrovsky took 81st place in December 2012, having lost 11 positions in a month ^{[29] [30]} . Mikhail Dmitriev, the journalist of The Moscow Post, referred to Ostrovsky's dubious staffing decisions and the emergence of political conflicts related to the governor to the reasons for the decline in Ostrovsky's position in the ranking ^[29] . A year later, in December 2013, the same Agency compiled a new rating, where Alexey Ostrovsky took 39th place, entering the group of “governors with strong influence” ^{[31] [32] [33]} .

Alexei Kazakov, a State Duma deputy from the Smolensk region, in an interview with Arguments of the Week , noted the inconsistency of Ostrovsky’s regional policy and sharply criticized it ^[34] .

Political scientist, Doctor of Political Sciences D.N. Nechaev points to negative trends in the economic and social development of the Smolensk region in 2015-2016, which are especially clearly manifested when comparing the development of Smolensk region with the development of other regions of the Central Federal District . Nechaev notes the inefficiency of the governor’s team, the lack of a “clearly worked out strategy for the development of the region” and “poor” intellectual level of Ostrovsky, manifested in his next response to criticism of the development of the region: “ Well, what do you want from the Smolensk region, from me? Look at the Belgorod , Voronezh regions - there is black earth. There, take a stick, stick it in the ground - and get a harvest ” ^[35] .

The Russian government has allocated funds in the amount of 243 million rubles to complete the construction of the infrastructure of the Phoenix Industrial Park , initiated by the Administration of the Smolensk Region, headed by Governor Ostrovsky. However, the process is almost in place, there is no economic effect, residents are weak, as the regional newspaper, conducting a journalistic investigation at the end of 2017, notes. Residents who entered into a contractual relationship did not start real work in the park. In accordance with the project, the first residents should have been accommodated there back in 2016. In addition, a fake video was shot about the alleged success of the Phoenix Industrial Park ^{[36] [37] [38]} .

In comments on his page on the FB network on May 9, 2018, Ostrovsky called the smolyanka Anna Azarenkova a “schizoid fool” ^[39] . This replica was soon deleted, the governor said his account was hacked ^[40] . Nevertheless, Azarenkova sued him, but lost the process.

• The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree (January 9, 2010) - for merits in lawmaking and the development of Russian parliamentarism ^[41] .
• P. Stolypin Medal of the II degree (February 13, 2014) - for his great contribution to the preparation and conduct of events dedicated to the celebration of the 1150th anniversary of the founding of Smolensk ^[42] .

• Biography on the site lobbing.ru
• Biography on the site vipdossier.ru
• Ostrovsky Alexey Vladimirovich (neopr.) . Udmurt branch of the Liberal Democratic Party . Archived March 24, 2012.