On April 30, Dmitry Mezentsev was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Belarus. This was reported by The Moscow Post. He is familiar with President Vladimir Putin from the St. Petersburg City Hall. Since then, all the time in the political cage. However, something from the life of Mezentsov was left behind the scenes.

Dmitry Mezentsev replaced Mikhail Babich, whom the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, according to Interfax, called almost a "destroyer" of relations between the two countries. To insure Dmitry Mezentsev is no stranger. In 2016, he was appointed to the post of senator from the Sakhalin region after Oleg Kozhemyako came to her, who replaced Alexander Khoroshavin, who was subsequently convicted of 13 years for taking bribes. Now the region until the autumn elections was left without a senator.

Dmitry Mezentsov has already had experience as a senator. From 2002 to 2009, Mezentsev was a senator from the Irkutsk Region. Since 2004 - Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, oversaw information policy and economic issues. In 2009, at the suggestion of President Dmitry Medvedev, he headed the Irkutsk Region, which he headed until 2012.

Mezentsev is considered one of the most effective lobbyists for regional interests in Moscow. As a former secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he also has solid international experience. And from this point of view, the appointment of Dmitry Mezentsev as ambassador to Belarus does not raise any questions.

Inefficient governor?

From the post of the governor of the Irkutsk region, Dmitry Mezentsev left early in May 2012. And this fact is shaking the myth about him as the supposedly best governor of the Irkutsk region.

It is rumored that Dmitry Mezentsev already very actively defended the interests of the oligarch Oleg Deripaska in the region. And could do it for a decent "gratitude"? At the election of the mayor of Irkutsk, Dmitry Mezentsev lobbied the candidacy of ex-mayor of Bratsk Sergey Serebrennikov, supported by Deripaska. However, beat the representative of the Communist Party, Viktor Kondrashov. How did the skilled apparatchik Dmitry Mezentsev manage to influence him, and therefore Kondrashov moved to United Russia? They bowed to the transition to the party of power and Vladimir Tashkinov, the leader of Ust-Ilimsk’s mayor of Ust-Ilimsk, representing “Fair Russia”. But the communist Alexander Serov, the mayor of Bratsk, could not be persuaded to switch. This was the cause of the criminal case against him? On the hardware "games" Mezentseva wrote The Moscow Post.

Oleg Deripaska kept Dmitry Mezentsev on a leash?

Alexander Serov was detained on February 3, 2011. According to the investigators, the mayor extorted a bribe from the fraternal entrepreneur Alexander Gaskov. During the arrest, he allegedly locked himself in an apartment to burn money or throw it out the window. The East Siberian Truth wrote about this strange story.

The money seems to have vanished. Right in the detention center, Serov resigned as mayor. Probably in exchange for freedom. However, after three years of investigation, in which the main evidence was missing - money, Alexander Serov unexpectedly received 5.5 years in prison for everyone. Does the fate of the ex-mayor of Bratsk lie on the conscience of Dmitry Mezentsev?

The city manager of Bratsk was a local deputy Alexander Tuykov, who previously worked as a public relations assistant to the general director of the Bratsk aluminum plant, which is a part of Rusal. However, he did not spend a long time in his post, in October 2011 he resigned, since he could not organize work to fight forest fires. PR turned out to be a bad business manager.

Evil tongues gossiped that the administration of the Irkutsk region allegedly "sawed" finance allocated to the agricultural sector. The landowners could not reach 330 million rubles. There was no evidence of this, but there is no smoke without fire.

In 2011, the budget of the Irkutsk region remained unused income balance of 20 billion rubles. But from the budget revenues of the region for 2012, according to rumors, he could get lost somewhere. Wouldn't Dmitry Mezentsev like to refute such an unflattering rumor for him?

Scandals Dmitry Mezentseva?

Before the elections to the State Duma in 2011, Dmitry Mezentsev managed to light up in another scandal. I was late for an hour at the airport for a scheduled flight "Irkutsk-Moscow". The delay of such flights occurs in exceptional cases, but in this, despite all the claims of the ship’s commander, he was not allowed to take off.

The reason for the delay was the presentation of Mezentsev with a report to the deputies of the inception. They offered Mezentsev to leave earlier, but he found that his voters sitting on the plane could wait. They are not deputies. About this incident wrote "Kommersant". Probably, there were people who could consider such behavior of Dmitry Mezentsev as a frank rudeness towards himself. This scandal, of course, negatively affected the reputation of Dmitry Mezentsev.

On December 14, 2011, the trade union committee of the East-Siberian Railway, Russian Railways, nominated Dmitry Mezentsev as a candidate for president of Russia. Apparently, then the governor of the Irkutsk region was to become a proven part of the crowd. However, this he did not work. Mezentsev not only failed to collect the required number of signatures but also got into a scandal with them.

In January 2012, Novaya Gazeta journalist Yevgeny Feldman learned that they would forge signatures for Dmitry Mezentsev in the building of the Moscow State University of Communications. In the hall, in which journalists managed to penetrate, it turned out 30-50 people who, apparently, were engaged in it. Leaving the hall, Feldman then summoned State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov Jr. However, it was not possible to get to the audience again. The doors were barricaded for the possible elimination of evidence. They wrote about it "Scandals".

When the doors opened, the participants in the collection of signatures tried to escape. Those who detained them were rudely stopped by strong-built guys. Journalist Feldman get a few blows to the face. Dmitry Mezentsev later explained that the hall was instructing and training activists to collect signatures. Why then did the participants of the gathering try to escape? The explanation of Mezentsev somehow sounded unconvincing.

At the end of December 2011, according to the information of “Scandals”, the FSB sent a letter to Dmitry Mezentsev stating that the signing of the law on tax benefits to companies operating in the Irkutsk region could lead to budget losses in 2012-2014. in the amount of 7 billion rubles. Despite a clear warning, Mezentsev signed the law.

This could be done in the interests of VCNG (Verkhnechonskneftegaz), the largest oil company in the region. Then it belonged to Fridman’s Alpha Group and Igor Sechin’s Rosneft, which later bought it. How many "kickbacks" could Dmitry Mezentsev get from VCNG and other companies? Thanks to him, they could work almost in a tax-free mode.

Old-timers of St. Petersburg recall that a man who resembled Dmitry Mezentsev in the 90s was often seen in the company of reputable businessmen, in particular, Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin). Some considered him the leader of the Tambov organized criminal group. He was detained in 2007, he was serving a sentence for raiding and extortion and attempted murder, in March he was sentenced to 24 years for creating a Tambovskaya criminal gang, in April, according to Gazeta, was charged with the murder of State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova. It is very strange if Vladimir Barsukov and Dmitry Mezentsev could have some common interests.

Now few people remember, and when Dmitry Mezentsev was in charge of the media at the St. Petersburg mayor's office, there were rumors that he was selling some “secrets” to competitors. And not always a quick reaction to frankly false articles about Sobchak and Putin. About this wrote The Moscow Post. Maybe Mezentsev as a smart calf "two queens sucked"? Then, when he was the governor, he probably could have helped the communist opponents for the appropriate gingerbread?

Will not Dmitry Mezentsev serve as yours and ours as ambassador to Belarus? From his way of life it emerges that the personal interests of the official may be much closer to him than the state. And this, in the end, can damage the international image of Russia.