Vladislav Shapsha, Governor of the Kaluga Region.
Vladislav Shapsha was appointed Acting Governor of the Kaluga Region on February 13, 2020, instead of Anatoly Artamonov, who led the region for almost 20 years. Almost immediately, the new governor had to face the coronavirus pandemic, the Regional Government managed to cope with this problem with a bang. For example, the percentage of deaths in the Kaluga region is now one of the lowest in Russia – 0.89%. Such results were achieved without resorting to strict quarantine. It is not surprising that in September last year Shapsha won the elections and officially became the governor of the region.
Vladislav Valerievich visited the metropolitan editorial office of AiF and told the journalists of the publication what was done to combat the pandemic, what tasks are now facing regional medicine, what is still being done for the development of the region and how the Cosmonautics Day will be celebrated in Kaluga.
About the day of cosmonautics
Gleb Ivanov: Vladislav Valerievich, April 12 is an important holiday for the Kaluga region – the day of cosmonautics. Tell us, what gifts of the region have been made this year?
Vladislav Shapsha: This is not only a holiday for the Kaluga region – for the whole country. Indeed, the event is extraordinary. We will soon open the second stage of the Cosmonautics Museum. The museum was opened back in Soviet times, but now the exposition there has been significantly expanded, and the museum itself has been modernized. Thus, it will be the largest space exploration museum in the country.
Of course, the construction of such a large facility was not complete without scandals. However, thank God, everything was decided, and now it is a wonderful museum with an interesting exposition, where you can spend time interestingly for both adults and children. For example, simulators will be installed there, where people can try to dock with the space station. There is a telescope in which you can not only observe the stars for the sake of curiosity, but also do scientific work. This telescope will also be included in the system for observing celestial bodies. Specialists from all over the country will be able to come to us to take advantage of this opportunity to do research. We are very proud of this museum. We are waiting for it to finally start working.
About medicine
We took the path of restructuring the work of the health care system. Hospitals were reorganized, 1,400 beds were equipped with ventilators. Then they actively transferred the industry to the production of various items useful for people, from masks and suits to sanitizers and antiseptics. One of the companies started sewing special protection – first masks, then protective gowns. Thank God, today all this is not so urgently needed, but I think you remember perfectly well that at the beginning of the pandemic there was an acute shortage of all this. The prices were insane for masks in pharmacies. Up to one hundred rubles came at a cost of two rubles. And today we have a million masks a day, one plant can make.
In addition, the construction of the regional infectious diseases hospital helped us a lot. They began to build it when no one knew either about the pandemic, or about the possible scale and difficulties that would be. And when the pandemic began, it was this infectious diseases hospital that became our shield from infection. Perhaps that is why we were able to quickly establish the work of the health care system in the Kaluga Region, quickly organize doctors and get out of this pandemic with minimal losses. And now we are building another hospital with 500 beds, and by the end of this year it will be ready to receive patients.
As a result of these measures, at the end of the year, the total production volume amounted to about one trillion rubles. We have only reduced our economic level by 0.8% compared to the previous year. This is a preliminary estimate. The Rosstat estimate will be made by the summer. According to the updated data, we will even exceed the level that was in 2019. And in terms of the incidence rate, we are one of the positive examples of the passage of the pandemic.
We always compare our present with the past, but we do not compare objective indicators, but our perceptions. And, of course, the perception when in Soviet times there was a hospital in every district filled with doctors who provide services is a good memory. that it was possible to come and get help.
But we know very well that in Soviet times – not in the Soviet Union, but simply at that time – people did not have such high-tech medicine. There were no such high-tech research, diagnostics, there were no such drugs, such technologies for treatment – all this simply did not exist. And today it is very difficult to make such technologies available in every locality. Not because it is expensive or there is no desire to build, but simply it is not in demand. Because they are very complex technologically and require extremely high qualifications from specialists.
Why do many people go to Moscow for treatment? Because if a surgeon stands at the table and does the same operation every day, he can be of the highest qualifications. It is for this operation that people come to him. Specialization is very high now. If earlier doctors did all possible operations, then the more complex the world became, the more complex the technologies became, the more specializations began to appear. Even specialized oncological institutes do not treat everything – there are institutes that treat the thyroid gland, and there are those who have other organs. And in each case, people try to go to a medical institution with the required specialization.
We cannot immediately equip all regional hospitals with high-quality technological equipment. Therefore, it was decided to create interdistrict centers, which should receive this equipment. And this is a task that we have to solve – if we have already made such a decision, then inter-district centers must meet the high requirements that people make to medicine today.
Of course, it is impossible to solve this problem without training. Today, there are two institutes on the territory of the Kaluga Region that are engaged in this. This is a branch of MEPhI in Obninsk and Kaluga State University. Special faculties have been created there, which graduate specialists annually. Last year, 272 of their graduates went to work as doctors. Of course, more is needed. But this is a problem not only for the Kaluga region. This is a problem for the whole country. And I believe that we are solving it in a fairly effective way. Not every subject can boast of two universities that train doctors for their region in a targeted manner.
We understand very well that the number of people living in the Kaluga region is much higher than the figure given by official statistics. And we will definitely clarify this figure in the autumn census. We are talking about those people who are registered in Moscow in order to receive Moscow benefits, but physically reside in the Kaluga Region. And they live constantly. And there are many of them.
Therefore, the official figure may be underestimated by one and a half times. A lot of people today live in the Kaluga region without registration. And by the way, the pandemic in this sense played into our hands, because all the dachas and all the houses were bought up. Now, in fact, on the real estate market, it is almost impossible to find a vacant land plot in the countryside. People actively came and settled in order to live and work remotely not in an apartment, but in a summer cottage.
As for the birth rate, 44 more children were born last year than in the previous year. The Kaluga region in terms of the birth rate is in second place in the Central Federal District. According to this indicator, we are one of the leaders in the country. By the birth of the second and third child, we are in first place.
We took financial measures specifically to support the birth rate. We increased the regional capital for the second child to 50 thousand, for the third and subsequent children from 50 to 100 thousand. We give birth to both fourth and fifth. They even began to come to us from neighboring regions, having seen the conditions that we created for families. So we have good dynamics since birth, and we are confident that the number of residents of the Kaluga Region will invariably grow.
About the plant in Vorotynsk and ecology
I asked local residents: “What do you want to build in this place?” They answered me: “The main thing is to be environmentally friendly.” Which one exactly? Environmentally friendly – what is that, for example? Cement factory? Cowshed? Pigsty? Poultry farm? All businesses have waste that negatively affects the environment.
We, of course, will not force anyone or put pressure on local residents. I know that this enterprise is environmentally friendly, I know that it is necessary, that it is safe and very effective. But there are procedures – public hearings, expert examinations. To start construction, you have to go through them all. The plant will not be built without them.
In general, this story makes you think about our mentality. For some reason, openness is often perceived as weakness. That is, if this plant were built on the sly, we are used to it. People would have come out, grumbled, as usual, but agreed – it’s already there. And when people come to people with an open visor, they talk about everything, show – then our people have the idea that something is not going well. That they are being deceived. This is not the case. Openness is the lot of the strong.
The program of separate waste collection is being actively implemented in large cities – in Obninsk, in Kaluga. It is important to explain to people how and why it should be done. It takes time. In Europe, they went through fines. They even labeled garbage bags to track people who did not follow the new rules. But our man cannot be outsmarted in this sense. Such methods do not work in Russia. Therefore, only conviction. When people themselves understand that there is no other way, that they are from their children and grandchildren, they will steal their lives from future generations. It seems to me that they are beginning to understand this, I do not see rejection or resistance.
