Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin (; born 21 June 1958) is a Russian politician, serving as the mayor of Moscow since 21 October 2010. Sobyanin previously served as the governor of Tyumen Oblast (2001–2005), Head of the presidential administration (2005–2008) and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (2008–2010 in Vladimir Putin's Second Cabinet). He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
Sobyanin is a member of the ruling United Russia political party, and is elected to its higher governing bodies, current member of presidium of Regional Council of the United Russia in Moscow and the head (political council secretary) of the party's Moscow branch from March 2011 to December 2012.
He is considered to be a close ally to Russian billionaire businessman Vladimir Bogdanov, Director General of Surgutneftegas.
As the mayor of Moscow, Sobyanin has gradually relaxed the massive construction projects of his predecessor Yury Luzhkov, for which he has won acclaim for the "most sane piece of city planning in years." As mayor, Sobyanin created Moscow Media, a holding company for a number of TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers, owned and controlled by the Moscow government. At the same time, Sobyanin was criticized for the banning of pride parades in the city, for which he was strongly condemned by LGBT groups.
Early life and career Sergey Sobyanin was born in a Mansi village of Nyaksimvol in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (then in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union).
In 1989, he got a second degree in jurisprudence (All-Union Correspondence Institute of Law). His PhD thesis was titled "Legal position of the autonomous okrugs as federal subjects of Russia". On 23 May 2007, at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Jurisprudence at Government of Russia, defence of Sobyanin's higher doctoral thesis "RF subject in economical and social development of the state" were to take place on the basis of his monograph published shortly before the event. But the defence was cancelled due to an unknown reason. Examination of Dissernet of Sobyanin's doctoral thesis and the monograph of 2007 exposed high level of plagiarism.
Political career
In 1991, he was elected mayor of Kogalym.
Since 1993, he has been the First Deputy of the Head of the Administration of the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
On 27 October 1996, he was re-elected as a delegate and a chairman of the Khanty–Mansi Duma.
On 12 July 2000 he was appointed the First Deputy of Plenipotentiary of President of Russia in the Urals Federal District.
On 14 January 2001 he was elected governor of Tyumen Oblast. During the campaign, oil tycoon Vladimir Bogdanov was its confidant.
He has been a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia political party since 2004.
In 2005, Sergey Sobyanin sent a request to the president of Russia about a vote of confidence. That was done in case of the change of the governor assignment procedure. Vladimir Putin nominated him for election by the Duma of the Tyumen Oblast and he was finally reelected on 17 February 2005.
In November 2005, he was appointed a head of the Administration of the president of Russia.
Since 21 October 2010, he has been the mayor of Moscow.
Mayor of Moscow
On 28 September 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov "due to the loss of the confidence of the President of the Russian Federation."». On 9 October, Sobyanin was included in the list of four candidates for the post of mayor of Moscow proposed to the president by United Russia (other candidates are Lyudmila Shvetsova, Igor Levitin, Valery Shantsev). On 15 October, Medvedev nominated Sobyanin to the Moscow City Duma. On 21 October, deputies of the Moscow City Duma voted by secret ballot (32 parliamentarians voted "for", 2 — "against") Sobyanin was confirmed as mayor for the next five years. On the same day, the president dismissed him from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Government Staff.
On 7 November 2010, Dmitry Medvedev included Sobyanin in the Security Council of the Russian Federation as a member of the Council, at the same time excluding him from the permanent membership of the Council. Sobyanin became the first mayor of Moscow to join the Security Council. On 23 November, he was elected to the bureau of the Supreme Council of the United Russia Party.
Under Sobyanin, according to a decision taken by Russian president Medvedev, there was a sharp expansion of the territory of Moscow due to the annexation of part of the south-west of the Moscow region. Since 1 July 2012, the area of Moscow has increased 2.4 times, and the population has grown by 250 thousand.
From 22 February to 3 October 2013 — Member of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation.
On 5 June 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Sobyanin's resignation at his own request and his appointment as acting mayor until early elections on 8 September 2013. Sergei Sobyanin chose to run for early elections not from the United Russia party, but as an independent candidate, and therefore had to not only overcome the municipal filter (110 signatures of municipal deputies), but also collect signatures from 70,000 voters. On 8 September 2013, he was elected mayor, gaining 51.37% of the vote with a turnout of 32.03% (a total of 1,193,178 votes), Sobyanin's inauguration ceremony was held on 12 September.
In October 2017, Sergei Sobyanin announced plans to run in the Moscow mayoral election in September 2018. On 14 April 2018, ahead of the start of the mayoral campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted at a meeting with Sobyanin that the mayor's team "generally works professionally," but there are still "chronic problems" in Moscow - traffic jams and migration.
On 9 September 2018, Sergei Sobyanin was re-elected for a third term, gaining 70.17% of the vote with a turnout of 30.89% (a total of 1,582,355 votes). The inauguration ceremony of the mayor took place on 18 September 2018.
On 11 September 2023, he was re-elected as mayor, gaining 76.39% or 2,499,114 votes. On 18 September 2023, he took the oath of office and officially assumed the post of mayor of Moscow.
Since 21 December 2020 — Member of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation.
Transport policy, public transport and road construction Immediately after his appointment, Sobyanin described the crisis of the transport system as "the most visible imbalance in Moscow's development.". Uncontrolled motorization led to the fact that by 2011, 4 million cars were registered in Moscow., In 2013, the city ranked first in the world in terms of traffic jams., and with heavy snowfalls, traffic stops.
According to the Mayor's office and experts, the most effective problem—solving strategy is to reduce the number of cars entering the streets by 500,000. To do this, it was planned to increase the price of car ownership and at the same time expand the possibilities of public transport along with the renewal of the fleet.
Sergei Sobyanin advocated the introduction of parking fees in the center of Moscow. The first paid parking zone was launched in November 2013, and in December 2014 it expanded to the borders of the Third Ring Road and also appeared on 25 streets outside it. After the expansion of the paid parking zone in December 2016, it covers more than 1,200 streets and 47 districts of the city. The introduction and expansion of the paid parking zone has repeatedly provoked protests from citizens: in the fall of 2015, 12 protest rallies were held, and in December 2016, an action against parking policy was held on Pushkin Square. According to Yandex analysts, the expansion of the paid parking area to the borders of the Third Ring Road accelerated traffic by 7-10% between the Garden Ring and the TTK.
According to the navigator manufacturer TomTom, in 2015 Moscow moved to fifth place in the world in terms of traffic jams, and the traffic congestion index in Moscow decreased to 44% (in 2012 — first place and 57%, respectively). In 2017, Moscow was excluded from the top 10 cities with the busiest roads according to the TomTom rating. Time loss due to traffic jams decreased to 43 minutes per day in 2016 compared to 57 minutes per day in 2012. At the same time, the average speed of traffic increased from 45 km/h in 2010 to 51 km/h in 2016.
In 2011, Sergei Sobyanin signed a purchase order for 2011-2012 for over 2,100 buses of modifications 5292.21 and 5292.22, and since 2011 he has implemented a program for the introduction of high-speed bus routes along dedicated lanes for public urban transport. In 2012, Sobyanin announced plans to build 70 new stations on the Moscow Metro. The adopted program for the development of the Moscow Metro until 2020, worth about 1 trillion rubles, provides for the construction of 76 stations and more than 150 km of lines. Several new stations — Zhulebino, Novokosino, Kotelniki and Rumyantsevo — are located outside the MKAD. The program includes both the extension of existing lines and the construction of new ones, including the Bolshaya Koltsevaya metro line (the third interchange circuit).
Sergei Sobyanin's rise to the post of mayor of Moscow was also marked by the removal of Dmitry Gaev from the post of head of the Moscow Metro State Unitary Enterprise, who headed the Moscow Metro from 1995 to 2011., and the appointment of Ivan Besedin to this post, Subsequently, he was also suspended after the train crash on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. Besedin himself stated that he left the post at his own request. Also, according to Vitaly Yefimov, the former head of the Ministry of Transport and deputy chairman of the State Duma, the resignation was premature.
On 10 September 2016, in the presence of Sergei Sobyanin and Vladimir Putin, electric train traffic was opened along the Moscow Central Ring (MK MZhD), which includes 31 stops with transfers to 10 metro lines and 9 radial railway lines. Urban electric train system The MCC is integrated with the Moscow Metro for fare payments and transfers, which creates a single space with the metro. By May 2017, more than 62 million passengers had used the MCC.
In October 2016, Magistral was launched in the central districts of the city, a program for optimizing the public transport route network and reorganizing routes of mainline, inter—district and social significance. Experts and citizens have criticized the policy of closing trolleybus routes since 2014. During the work on the My Street improvement program, the contact network was removed, and the routes themselves were shortened. With the launch of the Mainline, a number of trolleybus routes have been replaced by buses. The media reported on plans up to 2020 to further reduce trolleybus traffic. In January 2017, a rally for the preservation of the trolleybus network was held on Suvorovskaya Square, attended by about 900 people.
According to official data, 600 million (12%) more passengers used public transport in 2016 than in 2010; passenger traffic among economically active citizens increased by 63% compared to 2010.%. At the same time, the Moscow Department of Transport stated that ground transportation has improved its timetable compliance (94% accuracy in 2015 versus 76% in 2010).