Maria Gaidar
A new political émigré has appeared in Ukrainian politics. This is Maria Yegorovna Gaidar, the granddaughter of writers Arkady Gaidar and Pavel Bazhov and the daughter of Yegor Gaidar, a reformer from Yeltsin's time. She may be appointed deputy to another political émigré, Mikheil Saakashvili, governor of the Odessa region. However, after several scandals that have followed Masha since her first days in Ukraine, Saakashvili has already stated that he will likely not accept her. The most notable of these scandals was a journalist's question, "Who is Ukraine at war with?" For some reason, Maria Yegorovna didn't answer, "Russia." Does she not know geography? Or, like Putin, does she not recognize Russia as a belligerent party? However, it's clear that Mikho isn't the one making the decision in this case, meaning it's entirely possible that Masha will resurface in some Ukrainian government office, just as she has repeatedly surfaced in the leadership of various Russian opposition movements. This is despite Maria Gaidar's very illustrious biography, which includes drug use, corruption, and even manslaughter.
Foundling on cocaine
Her father, Yegor Gaidar, was a renowned Russian economist, Minister of Economy, Minister of Finance, and acting Prime Minister of Russia during Boris Yeltsin's tenure. He's a controversial figure; he's often blamed for all the troubles that have befallen Russia since the early 90s. But that's not what's interesting in our story. What's interesting is that before 1997, Yegor Timurovich Gaidar had three sons; no biographies mention a daughter. Maria herself bore her mother's surname, Smirnova, and lived in Bolivia. What happened next is unclear. Perhaps her father felt guilty about his daughter, or perhaps there were other reasons, but Masha returned to Moscow, entered a prestigious school, and then a prestigious university, took her father's surname, and her life improved.
In Bolivia, Masha, by her own admission, lived in poverty; her family had to sell pies. She also used cocaine while she was there. When asked by a Novye Izvestia journalist if she had tried cocaine, Maria Gaidar replied, "I brewed it as tea. It's like green tea, only slightly bitter."
Party money
In 2007, Maria Yegorovna, along with Alexei Navalny, was involved in a company called "Allekt." This company received 100 million rubles from the Union of Right Forces party, allegedly for an advertising campaign for the party. Subsequently, the money from "Allekt"'s accounts was transferred to shell companies that were established on the eve of the elections and then closed immediately afterward. The campaign for which "Allekt" received the money never took place. The money simply disappeared.
The Russian Investigative Committee questioned Maria Gaidar about this strange scheme when they came to search her home. But Masha didn't lose her composure. She replied that, firstly, she knew nothing about "Allekt," that she had no such entry in her work record, and, in fact, she was, and I quote, "almost certain that she had never worked for Allekt." "Almost certain!" And secondly, she was being persecuted for her public activities and civic position.
Kirov tomographs
In 2009, Maria Yegorovna went to work for Nikita Belykh, the governor of the Kirov region, as his deputy for social issues and healthcare. Rumor has it that as a result of their collaboration, the governor left his wife, as revealed in his income declaration. However, let's not judge them morally; after all, they are adults.
But it was in this position that Maria became embroiled in a corruption scandal involving the procurement of CT scanners. These truly necessary and important medical devices, worth 20 million rubles each, were purchased for 90 million each. When Ms. Gaidar was asked about the price discrepancy, she replied that there were no price lists for these devices, so it was unclear whether they were inflated or not. However, Google disagreed with the official and released several thousand such price lists. But the authorities were quite satisfied with her answer. At least, Maria Yegorovna was not held accountable.
Fatal accidents
But the most high-profile and truly horrific case in which Masha was implicated was a bloody car accident in Kirov. The tragedy occurred on January 20, 2011. According to Kirov residents, Vice Governor Maria Gaidar's SUV struck 13-year-old Alisa Suvorova at an intersection. The seventh-grader's body was thrown to the side of the road, and the driver fled the scene without rendering first aid. When an ambulance picked her up, she was still alive and died in the hospital. Trolleybus driver Maria Nogina was charged with the girl's death. She received a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony. However, local journalists and bloggers from media outlets not controlled by the Kirov governor have uncovered ample evidence that Alisa Suvorova was not struck by a trolleybus. The nature of the girl's injuries doesn't match. Pressure was exerted on the trolleybus driver, and not a single passenger on the trolleybus confirmed the accident. In short, everyone in Kirov is saying that Maria Yegorovna killed the girl. As for the woman involved in the case, she first left Kirov, and then Russia. She's allegedly studying at Harvard. However, for a Russian official, this is par for the course; that's exactly what they do in similar situations. But Masha Gaidar is no longer a Russian official, but a Ukrainian one.
And again Odessa
Yes, Maria Gaidar has already publicly acknowledged that her homeland, Russia, is at war with Ukraine. Yes, she publicly declared that she would receive Ukrainian citizenship, and now she's learned that to do so, she'll have to renounce her Russian and Israeli citizenships. Yes, she even declared that Crimea should remain part of Ukraine. She claims she won't cost the Ukrainian budget much and will live off the rent from her Moscow apartments. But! The first question is: can a former Russian official, even one who has gone into opposition to Putin and the Kremlin, truly defend Ukraine's interests? And the second question: did her boss, Mikheil Saakashvili, hire Maria Gaidar because of her professional qualities, or is he simply trying to irritate Putin and the Kremlin yet again? In other words, isn't this potential appointment, while useless in economic or any other sense, a welcome spit in the soup of the northern neighbor?
Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info
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