“Now there’s a school and a kindergarten on the seized plots”: what they are doing in RT to eradicate corruption

      Heads of districts of the Republic of Tatarstan described measures being taken to fight corruption

      Six deputies dismissed for loss of trust

      Regular inspections, purchases through electronic bidding, providing services via multifunctional centers (MFCs) — this is not a full list of measures applied in Tatarstan today to combat corruption. Everything being done now makes it possible, for example, to save budget funds, prevent poor-quality repairs of courtyards and roads, and together is aimed at keeping the republic’s economy at a high level.

      “In the nine months of this year in Tatarstan, 116 checks were carried out in state and municipal bodies regarding income declarations, as well as checks related to unresolved conflicts of interest and expenditure control. Eighty-three people were held accountable. Our unit carried out more than 26 checks in the nine months concerning the completeness of income information, compliance with restrictions and prohibitions, and control of expenditures. As a result of the checks, 24 persons were held liable, six of whom were dismissed due to loss of trust,” Rustam Gayazov, Deputy Head of the Directorate for Anti‑Corruption Policy of the Republic of Tatarstan, said at a press conference at Tatar‑inform.

      The six dismissed following the checks were deputies of the municipal formations of the Laishevsky, Cheremshansky, Tukaevsky, Nizhnekamsky, Alekseevsky and Kaybitsky districts.

      “This measure of accountability was applied for providing deliberately false information about income, failing to resolve a conflict of interest, as well as for holding foreign financial instruments — usually shares,” Gayazov noted.

      As an example, he cited a deputy of the Council of the Cheremshansky District of Tatarstan who, in addition, headed a state unitary enterprise. The audit revealed that he concluded agreements with a local entrepreneur for the purchase of spare parts and reagents — these transactions were a scheme to cash out money.

      “The check also showed a mismatch between income and expenditures. He purchased two apartments in Kazan. We forwarded the materials to the prosecutor’s office, and the issue of confiscating these apartments to the state’s income is now being decided in court. He was dismissed due to loss of trust. The materials were transferred to law enforcement agencies, and a criminal case was opened,” Rustam Gayazov added.

      “58 land plots worth more than 3 billion rubles were returned to municipal ownership”

      “The state of legality and law and order affects the city’s economic processes. This is partly due to quality work on the prevention of corruption offenses. We adopted our own anti‑corruption state program, running until 2028. Anti‑corruption legislation undoubtedly imposes certain restrictions and prohibitions on municipal officials, which is why we pay special attention to this issue in our city,” said Nail Magdeev, mayor of Naberezhnye Chelny.

      He added that it makes no sense to try to re‑educate adult employees, but it is important to form a negative attitude toward corruption from everyone.

      “All departments of the executive committee that are linked to the use of budgetary funds and perform permitting functions are to a greater or lesser degree exposed to corruption risks. Several years ago, the leadership of Naberezhnye Chelny took measures that resulted in 58 land plots worth more than 3 billion rubles being returned to municipal ownership,” he said.

      On this land, according to the mayor, were built the Russian Drama Theater, the “Adymnar” school, the “Akcharlak” kindergarten, a KAMAZ landfill and other social facilities.

      “We continue this work. This year 25 lawsuits were filed over the misuse of land plots. Combating corruption in the sphere of municipal procurement plays a major role. One important tool is the use of exchange platforms and auctions. It should be noted that in our city there is no practice of direct procurements — we can only make direct purchases in the event of emergencies,” Nail Magdeev said.

      In 2025, 721 contests were held on electronic trading platforms for more than 25 billion rubles — savings amounted to 125 million rubles, the mayor of Naberezhnye Chelny added.

      “More than 5,000 small‑volume purchases were made on the exchange platform: paper, pens and other consumables totaling 536 million rubles. Savings amounted to 97 million rubles. So for these two items — electronic auctions and the exchange — savings over just 10 months of this year amounted to 212 million rubles,” he noted.

      “Alekseevsky District implements its own anti‑corruption program”

      “In Alekseevsky District a municipal anti‑corruption program is being implemented. Two commissions have been created and are actively functioning to coordinate anti‑corruption work. This is a center where we analyze risks and develop preventive measures,” said Sergey Demidov, head of the Alekseevsky municipal district of the Republic of Tatarstan.

      The district also has a commission for compliance with rules of official conduct and for resolving conflicts of interest, the head of the district emphasized.

      “It acts as an internal controller. This commission ensures the cleanliness of the ranks of municipal employees, reviews specific situations, thereby preventing potential abuse of power. An important area of prevention is anti‑corruption outreach. We begin forming a negative attitude toward corruption from an early age. Class hours, drawing and essay contests are held in educational institutions. Similar work is also carried out for youth — for example, lectures and meetings with law enforcement officers at youth clubs,” he said.

      Great attention in Alekseevsky District is paid to public procurement. A special department has been created to monitor the transparency of the procurement system.

      “We teach how to correctly fill out declarations of income, expenses and property”

      “Cheremshansky municipal district carries out work on tax control. Thirty‑three applications were received, 25 of them decided positively; no applications related to combating corruption were received. The remaining applications are scheduled for the next period, included in the work plan, or decisions with reasoned refusals have been made. Many issues in the district are resolved using self‑contribution funds. In this regard, a number of issues received through ‘People’s Control’ were resolved,” said Ramil Aybatov, head of the Cheremshansky municipal district of the Republic of Tatarstan.

      Providing services to the population through the Gosuslugi portal or MFCs significantly reduces the temptation for those who like to solve issues by back channels, he noted.

      “In 2025 an anti‑corruption review was conducted of 266 regulatory legal acts and projects. As part of the pre‑declaration campaign, meetings and training are held that fully explain the procedure for filling out declarations of income and expenses, property and property liabilities. Training is also conducted with the participation of the Directorate for Anti‑Corruption Policy of Tatarstan,” the district head said.

      All municipal employees filed income declarations last year — thanks to training they have come to this task more responsibly and make fewer mistakes when filling out documents, he added.

      This year only one person in the district was suspected of a conflict of interest — he was issued a reprimand, Ramil Aybatov said.

      “Residents of the Republic of Tatarstan complain about inability to make appointments with doctors”

      “Many of the issues my colleagues spoke about today are directly related to citizens’ appeals to various authorities and through various feedback systems — the ‘People’s Control’ system, the ‘We Decide Together’ and ‘Incident Management’ feedback platforms. In each of them you can see signs of corrupt practices,” said Sariya Saburskaya, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Tatarstan.

      More than 220,000 appeals were received from the republic’s population through these three services this year, the ombudsperson added.

      “This year we conducted 31 field events and considered 697 citizens’ appeals. Moreover, for the first time this year, together with representatives of the Directorate for Anti‑Corruption Policy we visited several municipalities to see what appeals are being made, how they are being processed and whether there are corruption‑related appeals among them,” Sariya Saburskaya said.

      Special attention during such field events was paid to medicine and transport, the ombudsperson added. This year, at the instruction of the leadership of Tatarstan and the prosecutor’s office, new closed categories were added to the ‘People’s Control’ system: propaganda and illegal advertising of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, operation of drug dens, illegal work of quick‑money schemes as couriers and droppers, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Tatarstan said.

      “Citizens’ appeals on these new categories are already coming in, 119 in total. All medical institutions are connected to the feedback platform. This is very important, because a fairly large number of appeals, more than 60%, concern healthcare problems,” she noted.

      Residents of the Republic of Tatarstan complain about the inability to make appointments with doctors, obtain medical documents online. In addition, people often complain about insufficient infrastructure improvements.

      “This year we managed to resolve more than 24,000 notifications related to infrastructure improvement, 13,000 notifications in the ‘roads’ direction. Sincere thanks to Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov, because it was thanks to him that additional funds were allocated to solve current and capital road repair issues,” she noted.

      Some requests from residents concerning road repairs could not be resolved since 2014, Sariya Saburskaya pointed out.

      “The complainant said that repairs are constantly carried out in the same place, money is invested, but there is no benefit”

      “Seventeen categories in the system are devoted to anti‑corruption issues. But overall this year there are not so many appeals — only 36. Yet we sometimes see manifestations of corruption in appeals that belong to other categories, for example housing and communal services or roads. For example, in Bugulma a sports ground was built by order of the municipality; it was built this year and by the end of the year the covering was already unusable,” she gave as an example.

      The playground was built with budget funds. Only after a personal visit by Sariya Saburskaya and representatives of the Directorate for Anti‑Corruption Policy of the Republic of Tatarstan was the site brought into proper condition, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Tatarstan noted.

      “There are examples where corruption manifests itself in the housing and communal services sector. A complainant from Bavly reported a possible theft of electricity and unauthorized connection to the system. An inspection was carried out; the theft was not confirmed, but we immediately ensured the objectivity of the consideration of this issue,” Sariya Saburskaya said.

      Residents of Fatykh Amirkhan Street in Kazan complained about poor‑quality repairs to water supply networks, she gave as an example.

      “This is an example of corruption in the area of territorial improvement. The complainant said that repairs are constantly carried out in the same place, money is invested, but there is no benefit. We checked the situation thoroughly — it turned out that pipe bursts really occur constantly, but these water supply networks were transferred in 2014 and need complete reconstruction, which means that repair funds are being spent in vain, since bursts occur constantly in one place or another due to the total wear of the pipes. Our citizens stand guard in exposing signs of corruption in various spheres of activity, and we are grateful to them for such active work,” the ombudsperson concluded.

      Photo: © Tatar‑inform