Press Release, 25.01.2018

Sergei Mitrokhin, head of Yabloko’ Anticorruption Policy Centre, filed an application with the Moscow region Public Prosecutor’s Office demanding to check the legality of functioning on a paid basis of a school in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, stop discrimination of children and provide a quota for children from low-income and large families. Mitrokhin also demanded that the Public Prosecutor’s Office cancel the refusal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to institute criminal proceedings.

Photo: Andrei Vorobyov, Govenor, and Sergei Lavrov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the opening of the elite school

Yabloko’ Anticorruption Policy Centre found out that a “multifunctional children’s educational center” was built in the Moscow region in the village of Razdory in 2017. A school and a kindergarten were built according to the municipal programme and cost the budget, according to the estimates of the lawyers of the Anticorruption Policy Centre, 2,164 billion roubles. Another 129.9 million was spent on equipment and furniture for the school. The total amount of 2.29 billion roubles makes about one fifth of the budget expenditures of the Odintsovo municipal district.

After the construction was completed, the administration of the Odintsovo municipal district refused for an unknown reason to take the educational centre. The property was transferred to the regional government. Now, a private expensive school operates on the basis of the educational centre. Its founder is the Ministry of Education of the Moscow Region.

From the response of the interior department to the inquiry of civil activists it became known that about 550 pupils study in the school, of which only 14 study free of charge. The children of the Governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov presumably also study in this school. According to the director of the school, the cost of a year in the school amounts to 700,000 roubles (approximately USD 12,000). Governor Vorobyov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were present at the opening of the school.

“This “budget maneuver” of Andrei Vorobyov means that he considers the level of public education in the Moscow region low, not sufficient for his children. But instead of improving the quality of education for all children of the Moscow region, he decided to amend the situation only for a narrow circle of his associates. It seems to me that for the President of the Russian Federation, which Mr. Putin still is, has a serious reason to dismiss the Governor in connection with the loss of confidence,” said Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Anticorruption Policy Centre.

The Anticorruption Policy Centre also believes that the paid basis of functioning of the school and the cost of study there do not leave a chance for children from low-income families.

“There is discrimination as of family income, and the right of children to general access to free education is violated, which is guaranteed in part 3 of Article 5 of the Law on Education. Given that the children of Governor Andrei Vorobyov study in this school, there is his personal interest in ensuring that the school is maximally staffed and includes only the children of the elite,” said Alexey Karnaukhov, lawyer and deputy head of the Centre.

Information on violations of the law was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s office.