Bulavinov

Vadim Yevgenyevich Bulavinov (born March 20, 1963, Gorky) — a Nizhny Novgorod politician who was twice elected Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod (2002–2010), a deputy of the State Duma of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th convocations, and a deputy of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod. The last head of the city to be elected by direct popular vote, and the only mayor of the modern era to hold the post for two consecutive terms. Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod (2021). ^{[1][2][4][39]}

Positions and Elections

Bulavinov's career took him from repair mechanic at Krasnoye Sormovo to mayor of a city of one million and six terms in the State Duma. During the 1990s he won and lost elections to the State Duma, the City Duma, and the governorship; in 2002 and 2005 he was twice elected mayor; and after the 2010 municipal governance reform he represented the region in the lower house of parliament for sixteen years. ^[4][22][23]

Elections in which Bulavinov participated

Over more than thirty years in public politics, Bulavinov contested elections at every level — from a district in his native Sormovo to two gubernatorial campaigns. The consolidated results bear out what even his opponents noted: whenever he lost, he came back within a year or two. ^[3][32]

Childhood and Youth

Vadim Bulavinov was born on March 20, 1963, in the Sormovsky District of Gorky, into a working-class family: his father was a steelworker at a machine-building plant, and his mother worked at a childcare facility. He completed secondary school — No. 17 according to some sources, No. 117 according to others — and vocational school No. 5. ^[3][4][6]

Many years later he recalled that he had not been admitted to the ninth grade because of his conduct rather than his academic performance, and had been forced to attend a vocational school — a decision he called a grave mistake. As a boy, by his own account, he had dreamed of becoming "first a steelworker, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party." ^[26][18]

From 1979 he worked as a repair mechanic for welding equipment in the assembly and welding shop of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Sormovo. In 1982 he was drafted into the army and served in the armored forces of the Northern Group of Forces in Poland, where he qualified as a "armor and tank equipment repair specialist." According to official records he was demobilized with the rank of sergeant; Sergey Kocherov wrote that he had risen to company sergeant major. Bulavinov himself recalled submitting a request to be sent as a volunteer to Afghanistan. ^[4][3][26]

After the army he returned to the plant, from which he was sent, via a Komsomol assignment, to serve in the non-departmental security service of the Sormovsky District Department of Internal Affairs of the Gorky Region police; he served in the internal affairs agencies until 1990. In one later campaign brochure this work was described as "service in special forces"; in another version of his biography, as service in a rapid-response company. In 1988 he was admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; according to his own account, he was admitted by the first secretary of the district committee, Sergey Gladyshev. In the city's retelling of his biography, this period is associated with guarding produce warehouses and wine factories. ^{[3][7][6][26][34]}

Concurrently, ^{[4][18][7][3]} Bulavinov enrolled in the evening division of the All-Union Correspondence Law Institute (VУZI), specializing in law. Having started a family early, he took on extra work: his official biography states that he learned tailoring professionally and was among the first in the city to open his own business. He received his degree in 1989 (other sources say 1990) and, as one of the top students in his class, was invited to join the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Bar Association.

Lawyer and First Elections (1989–1993)

His legal practice lasted about three years. Bulavinov's own biography stated that he advised the regional and city administrations, worked with the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the customs authority, and served as legal counsel to the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka. ^[3]

During his later electoral campaigns, opponents circulated their own accounts of what he had been doing in the early 1990s, including allegations of ties to the criminal world. No evidence was ever produced, and Bulavinov himself described such publications as the scheming of rivals. ^[3]

On 12 December 1993, Bulavinov was elected as a deputy to the State Duma of the first convocation from the 120th Kanavinsky constituency. The victory came as a surprise and gave rise to rumors: his opponents could not understand how his canvassers had gathered the required thousands of signatures. Later, a theory emerged that Governor Boris Nemtsov, who officially backed Yudin in the constituency, had in fact favored Bulavinov; Kocherov believed that Nemtsov's support had been purely declarative. ^[3]

Bulavinov ran his campaign on the image of a wholesome, good-looking young man and on techniques borrowed from Western electioneering. The ballot listed his occupation as "practicing lawyer." One of his most successful moves was an advertisement aired during the broadcast of the soap opera Santa Barbara on the second television channel, in which he promised that Russians' problems would be solved not by the show's characters but by him. He outpolled his nearest rival by 18,000 votes, yet came behind the "against all" option — which, under the law of the time, did not prevent him from taking his seat. He ran as an independent candidate. ^[3][6]

First Convocation of the State Duma (1993–1995)

In the Duma, Bulavinov served on the Committee on International Affairs and, according to Kocherov, on the Budget Committee. In 1994 he joined the parliamentary group "Liberal-Democratic Union of December 12," and from March 14, 1995, the group "Stability," where he served as executive secretary; this group, in his own words, gave rise to the movement "Our Home — Russia." On April 9, 1995, he was elected to the coordinating council of the movement "Stable Russia." ^[4][6][9][3]

On February 25, 1995, at a founding conference in Nizhny Novgorod, Bulavinov was elected general secretary of the All-Russian Voters' Movement "Union Spring," which declared its aim to be the protection of voters' rights from unscrupulous politicians. ^[6]

He conspicuously abstained from the vote on the government's resignation, but traveled abroad as part of parliamentary delegations. Among the episodes of that convocation that stuck in people's memory were an attempt to pull Deputy Nikolay Lysenko away from the priest Gleb Yakunin, and public accusations by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who linked Bulavinov to the murder of businessman Sergey Skorochkin. Bulavinov had been friends with Skorochkin and appeared in the murder case as a witness; no charges were brought against him. ^[3][4]

Ahead of the 1995 elections, Bulavinov counted among his achievements a positive Security Council opinion on funding the development and construction of ekranoplans (ground-effect vehicles) and the allocation of 4 billion rubles from the federal budget for the construction of a circus. ^[3]

Chronicle of 1995

The year before the second Duma elections proved eventful for Bulavinov, with numerous episodes making it into the newspaper chronicle.

• On March 19, 1995, his car was robbed on Berezovskaya Street. Four young men aged 16–18 stole a leather coat, $800, 450,000 rubles, two credit cards from Moscow banks, a driver's license, and vehicle documents from a Honda parked outside one of the buildings; the foreign-made car itself was left behind. ^[6]
• On September 10, 1995, a brawl broke out in the Duma: Deputy Nikolay Lysenko tore a cross from Gleb Yakunin and beat him with it; Evgeniya Tishkovskaya came to Yakunin's aid, while LDPR deputies led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky rushed to Lysenko's side, shouting "Strangle him! Tear the cassock off him!" Bulavinov tried to protect Tishkovskaya from Zhirinovsky. ^[6][5]
• On November 27, 1995, Bulavinov proposed holding a lottery called "Nadezhda" (Hope) on December 17, election day, for voters. The Central Election Commission did not support the idea: electoral legislation does not allow gambling or any activity other than voting and observation during polling. ^[6]

The 1995 defeat

In the 1995 elections, Bulavinov considered himself the frontrunner and feared only Andrey Klimentyev, who was running his campaign from a Nizhny Novgorod pretrial detention center. He did indeed outpace Klimentyev (11.0% versus 9.7%), but the district was won by city duma deputy Olga Beklemisheva with 18.1%: she spoke to voters about social issues everyone could relate to, while Bulavinov's campaign video showed him surveying the Volga expanses from the Kremlin. ^[32][3]

Bulavinov lost to Beklemisheva by nearly 21,000 votes, took the defeat hard, and spent two years suing her, seeking to prove that she had misled voters by concealing her Moscow Region residency registration. The courts yielded nothing. ^[3]

Seti-NN and the city duma (1994–1998)

The television company "Seti-NN" was founded in the spring and summer of 1994 by a group of young people who had formed the "Soyuz Vesna" (Union Spring) association to advance their political and business ambitions. Bulavinov, then still a State Duma deputy, was among the founders, though not in a leading role. The channel initially broadcast NTV programs, then took up the full broadcast schedule, and later combined its own programming with films and shows from REN-TV. Popularity came to it along with debts, and most of the founders had little time left for the television company. ^[3]

Bulavinov proved to be the only person who saw the channel's potential and acquired a controlling stake; some former members of Soyuz Vesna raised objections to this. The city administration's official biography states that in the two years under his leadership, Seti-NN was transformed from an indebted enterprise into a financially and politically independent television company and the most popular in the city. He remained a shareholder of the station until 1999, and served as its general director from 1996 to 1999. ^[3][8][20]

In 1997, Bulavinov won a seat on the City Duma from one of the districts in his home Sormovo District, edging out businessman Karlyshev by just 334 votes. His colleagues received him with suspicion: he became the only deputy to be denied the right to work on a professional basis, and he was put in charge of the local self-government committee. Complaints and instructions from constituents were funneled to him through assistants. ^[3][22]

In the spring of 1997, Bulavinov ran in the early gubernatorial election and became the first Nizhny Novgorod candidate to commit to specific deadlines for fulfilling his promises — for example, raising teachers' salaries by 20% within a month. The main contest was between Mayor Ivan Sklyarov and State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennadiy Khodyrev. Bulavinov received 8.1% across the Region and 11.05% in Nizhny Novgorod, outpaced journalist Nina Zvereva, and placed in the top three, though he trailed second-place Khodyrev by nearly 30%. According to Kocherov's account, his appearance at a gathering of the Region's influential figures before the runoff ended in a scandal and his removal from the premises. ^[3]

Under Bulavinov, Seti-NN aired a program called SOS that quickly gained notoriety: hosts would travel to citizens' complaints and, on camera, demand answers from the directors of housing maintenance offices and district engineering services. When the 1999 State Duma election campaign got underway, the program acquired a new pager that accepted complaints carrying the reply code "Bulavinov." ^[3]

The shares dispute and the murder of Sadekov (1997)

In 1997, the director of the closed joint-stock company Volga-Petroleum, Abdulkhamid Sadekov — who had been methodically buying up shares in the television channel from former members of Soyuz Vesna — challenged Bulavinov's claim to the controlling stake in Seti-NN. Seti-NN director Lerman, siding with Bulavinov, placed the company on a "siege footing," while Sadekov, whom rumor had it was a relative of Nemtsov's wife, took the matter to court. ^[3]

On the night of October 10–11, 1997, Sadekov was shot dead by unknown assailants in his car in the Odintsovsky District of the Moscow Region. According to an alternative account presented in a Lobbying.ru report, Sadekov had bought Soyuz Vesna from Bulavinov and was killed on the morning of the very day he was to be elected general secretary of the movement at a congress in Moscow. Some Nizhny Novgorod residents connected the businessman's death to the shares dispute, but no formal charges were brought against Bulavinov. Kocherov wrote that having an interest in the outcome of the dispute did not amount to complicity, and that the businessman had most likely been "ordered" killed by other people. ^[3][4]

After this, Bulavinov temporarily withdrew from public politics and took no part in the turbulent mayoral elections of spring and autumn 1998. ^[3]

Return to the State Duma (1999–2002)

In the 1999 elections in the Kanavinsky constituency, Bulavinov and Beklemisheva seemed to have switched roles: he ran as the "people's candidate" working the ground with voters, while she came across as the "Moscow deputy." Bulavinov was nearly removed from the ballot over 2,000 signatures deemed invalid; he was saved by Mayor Yuri Lebedev, who persuaded him to withdraw the signatures and post a deposit, and persuaded the commission to wait. On 19 December 1999, Bulavinov won with 28.62% of the vote, beating Beklemisheva by 29,000 votes. ^[3][9]

In the Third Duma he became First Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary group "People's Deputy," which was led by Gennady Raykov. From 28 January 2000 he served on the Committee on Information Policy; on 10 October 2001 he moved to the Committee on Industry, Construction and High-Technology Industries; Kocherov also mentions his work on the Committee on International Affairs under Dmitry Rogozin. Under the quota system, Bulavinov was elected to the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and served on its Legal Committee. ^[9][3][7]

On 27 May 2000, at the founding congress of the Unity party, he was elected a member of the Political Council; in 2001 he joined the cross-faction group "Volga–Ural," and in October 2001 he headed the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the People's Party. Ahead of the 2000 presidential election, Bulavinov became an authorized representative of Vladimir Putin. ^{[9][4][22][3]}

The 2001 Gubernatorial Election

Kocherov called the 2001 gubernatorial election Bulavinov's most successful campaign. Positioning himself as the president's authorized representative, he sold voters the formula "the state is Putin, the governor is Putin's authorized representative," and his approval ratings climbed despite a wave of negative coverage in the media owned by his rival Dmitry Savelyev. He again outpaced Andrey Klimentyev (19.1% against 10.5%), but according to the regional electoral commission finished only third. ^[3][32]

According to Kocherov, nearly 3% of votes were taken from Bulavinov, with 2.3% of them going to incumbent Governor Sklyarov; he attributed the decisive role to the presidential envoy in the Volga Federal District, Sergey Kirienko, who, by some accounts, had declined the advice of Alexander Voloshin and Vladislav Surkov to back the "promising" Bulavinov. Sklyarov and Khodyrev advanced to the runoff, and Khodyrev became governor. Bulavinov, feeling he had been outmaneuvered, had a sharp exchange with Kirienko, called on voters to cast "against all" ballots in the runoff, and left for a seaside resort. ^[3][31]

Political analysts debated how the election might have turned out had Bulavinov made it to the runoff: some believed the party of power would have consolidated around the young candidate, while others argued that his ratings were already slipping under pressure from hostile television companies and newspapers. ^[3]

2002 Mayoral Election

Less than a year later, Bulavinov was asked to run for Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod against Yury Lebedev, with whom he had a relationship of mutual trust; he had previously said on more than one occasion that the post of mayor held no appeal for him. Kocherov explained this decision by the lack of prospects in the Duma, despite his friendship with Vladislav Surkov. ^[3]

On 22 April 2002, Bulavinov, together with Gennadiy Raykov and Dmitry Rogozin, introduced a bill in the State Duma proposing a new article of the Criminal Code that would provide for imprisonment of one to five years for male homosexual acts; according to Bulavinov, the initiative was aimed at strengthening the institution of the family, public morality, and the health of citizens. According to Kocherov, Rogozin withdrew from co-authorship. Bulavinov also defended the bill in a popular television program in a debate with Elena Khanga and Elena Ishcheyeva. ^[4][3]

Bulavinov's initial approval rating was the highest among the candidates; he was presented as the "Kremlin candidate," and Dikin and Sentyurin withdrew in his favor. His main rival turned out unexpectedly to be Andrey Klimentyev; Klimentyev was removed from the election one day before polling, and Veta Vladimirova — Bulavinov's authorized representative — played an active part in the court proceedings over his disqualification. Bulavinov himself expressed sympathy to Klimentyev. ^[32][3]

The campaign was accompanied by "black PR" tactics such as spoiler candidates who officially changed their surname, given name, and patronymic to match those of a well-known politician. The first round produced no winner. Ahead of the runoff, Bulavinov introduced the team he intended to work with: Aleksandr Meleshkin, Sergey Gladyshev, Irina Tarasova, and Vladimir Lazarev. On 29 September 2002 he won, defeating Lebedev by approximately 2,500 votes, and became the 55th head of city self-government; in both rounds many city residents voted "against all." ^[7][8][3]

On October 16, 2002, his mandate as a State Duma deputy was terminated. ^[9]

Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod (2002–2010)

Bulavinov inherited the city in dire straits: debts exceeded the annual budget, the treasury owed tens of millions to the Gorky Automobile Plant — owner of the largest combined heat and power station — and to RAO UES of Russia; thousands of homes remained without heat after the heating season began; "Tepłoenergo" (with accounts payable of 1.2 billion rubles) and the water utility were on the brink of bankruptcy; and street lighting was operating at half capacity. At the inauguration, Sergey Kirienko presented the new mayor with a water gate valve — a symbol of the primary challenge: heat and water. The mayor received progress reports every three hours, and by mid-October the district heating supply had been restored. ^[7][8]

In mid-October 2002, Bulavinov convened a Council of Mayors — nine city heads from different eras, from the Soviet period to the "new formation" — to discuss the municipal debt. Annual reports by the city's head to residents became a tradition from his first term; the mayor also reported monthly on the Seti-NN television channel. ^[7][8][20]

Bulavinov entrusted municipal property management to Alexey Lyapin, formerly the chief financial officer of Seti-NN, while Svetlana Utrosina, the television station's former chief accountant, became deputy mayor for finance. In April 2004, Kommersant reported that the video screen on Minin Square had begun broadcasting Seti-NN news with sound, even though the city duma had banned audio accompaniment on outdoor screens two months earlier; back in March the mayor had promised: "Once I sign the Duma's resolution, the screen will stop blaring." ^[20]

In April 2004, Bulavinov joined United Russia. On July 29, 2004, Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas Georgy awarded him the ecclesiastical Order of the Holy Righteous Prince Daniel of Moscow, Third Class — "for his attention to the endeavors and in connection with the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Serafim Sarovsky." ^[9][21]

In 2005, Valery Shantsev was appointed Governor. Kocherov noted that with a strong Governor in place, the position of Mayor had lost some of its former appeal, and he linked Bulavinov's support in the elections to the stance of Kirienko and the head of the regional branch of Yevgeny Lyulin of United Russia. Before the elections, a hepatitis A epidemic broke out in Sormovsky District, and the Governor took the situation under his control. The city budget stood at 7.5 billion rubles against a need of at least 15 billion. ^[3][33]

On October 16, 2005, Bulavinov was re-elected. Different sources put his result at "more than 70%," "nearly 78%," and "nearly 80%"; he had no serious rivals. ^{[9][2][18][7][33]}

During his tenure, according to city administration figures, the city's multi-billion-ruble debts were paid off, the budget tripled, healthcare funding increased sevenfold, and education funding fivefold; the number of municipal kindergartens was brought up to 320, and three schools were built in a single year — on Fedoseenko Street, in Verkhniye Pechyory, and in Burnakovskiy microdistrict. More than 5 billion rubles were allocated for major housing repairs in 2007–2010, and under the "Garden City" program, 33 microdistricts with a combined population of over 150,000 people were landscaped and improved. In 2009, the Ministry of Regional Development recognized Vodokanal and Teploenergo as the best utilities in the country. ^[7]

Under Bulavinov, Alexandrovsky Garden and the Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment were reconstructed; restoration of Ilyinskaya Sloboda and Zapochaine was begun; cobblestones were laid and sculptures installed on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya — which President Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 called "the Nizhny Novgorod Broadway" — and Fedorovsky Embankment was rebuilt. In November 2009, the road section of the Metro Bridge across the Oka, 1,344 meters long, was opened; the city was responsible for relocating residents from buildings at the approaches, rerouting utilities, and bank reinforcement works costing more than 2 billion rubles. ^[7]

City residents most often recall those years for how well the roads were cleared of snow in winter under Bulavinov. ^[38][2]

In a 2024 interview, Bulavinov recounted how he had pressed developers who had received land before his time to give gifts to the city — municipal equipment and hospital renovations — and how he had demolished unauthorized structures: "Back then I demolished everyone hard." An off-budget fund, into which entrepreneurs voluntarily contributed around one and a half billion rubles a year, had to be closed on orders from the prosecutor's office in 2006 or 2007, according to him. ^[26]

Critics assessed his work differently: political analyst Sergey Kocherov, writing in 2005, considered Bulavinov primarily a public politician — strong at the podium and at the polls, but not a hands-on manager. Around the same time a joke made the rounds: "Vadik, why are you running your campaign on public money?" — "Well, ten bucks is ten bucks." ^[3]

The city will stay whole. I won't let anyone split it into "lower" and "upper."

I'm 44, and this job has turned me practically gray — I had no gray hair before becoming mayor.

The city through the mayor's eyes: a 2007 interview

In the autumn of 2007, Bulavinov spoke at length about the city's problems on the program "Without a Tie" on the Volga television company. He described the work of a deputy as attractive but dull — "You don't see the results of your own efforts" — while the work of a mayor, he said, yields visible results: repaired buildings, boulevards, monuments. ^[18]

The mayor identified traffic as the chief unresolved problem: the city already had more than 300,000 cars, with "almost every family owning one." He did not regard the situation as a collapse, but acknowledged it was very serious, and outlined three lines of action: revising the scheme of traffic flows, signs, traffic lights, and road markings; building overpasses and pull-in lay-bys; and constructing bypass roads and interchanges. Projects on the drawing board included a parallel road to Lenin Avenue running from Lenin Square along the Oka riverbank, a parallel road to Vaneev Street, widening of the road near NITEL, the continuation of the second Betancourt Street in Kanavino District, and repairs to Marksistskaya Street in Sormovo. The mayor separately backed the towing of illegally parked cars, provided that official parking lots were established in the city. ^[18]

Bulavinov defended the illumination of the central streets on more than aesthetic grounds: according to him, once the main roads were lit, the crime rate fell by 30–40 percent, and the next step was to extend lighting to courtyards and the private housing sector. He called the residential overhaul program his chief achievement: the volume of work in 2007 had grown thirteenfold compared with the start of his tenure as mayor, and it was planned to increase it by a further five times the following year. When asked whether residents might end up being let down, the mayor answered plainly: "I am afraid. I'll be honest — I am afraid." ^[18]

At the same time he spoke of a shortage of skilled workers: what was needed was high pay, respect for the labor of machinists, welders, and carpenters, and support measures for working-class professions. A school referendum held two years earlier had prompted the city to launch a sports-facilities program: within two years, 47 sports grounds and around seven stadiums had been built. ^[18]

Bulavinov acknowledged his demanding attitude toward subordinates: "you can't achieve results by just scolding people," but sometimes, he said, things wouldn't move without raising his voice, though he regarded salary incentives and social guarantees as his primary management tool. ^[18]

The Third Term That Never Was (2009–2010)

Bulavinov had intended his second term to be his last: "in three years I will need to hand this work over to a successor," he said in 2007. The financial crisis of 2008 changed his plans: "The city is now facing a difficult economic situation, and I have no intention of abandoning Nizhny Novgorod under such circumstances." In the spring of 2009 he assured people there would be no confrontation with the Governor, while Valery Shantsev remarked that it "would be difficult for Bulavinov to run for a third term." ^[18][19][7]

In 2010 the city charter was amended: direct mayoral elections were abolished, the city head was henceforth elected by the deputies from among themselves, and the administration was headed by a city manager hired under contract. According to Bulavinov in a 2024 interview, he was initially opposed but agreed when he learned it was an instruction from the federal center. In the summer of 2010, intra-party primaries forced him to withdraw from the single-member constituency No. 22, where Oleg Sorokin was standing. ^[7][26][34]

In the elections of October 10, 2010, the list headed by Bulavinov received approximately 58% of the vote. A few days before the election of the city head, he announced that criminal charges had been brought against him and named Oleg Sorokin as the instigator. ^[10][14]

On October 21, Shantsev announced that he would not recommend Bulavinov for the post of city head. On October 25, at the first session of the new Duma, Bulavinov withdrew his candidacy and proposed voting for the former Duma speaker Ivan Karnilin; Oleg Sorokin was elected city head, and Oleg Kondrashov became City Manager. This was how Nizhny Novgorod acquired its "two-headed" governance. ^[14][15][1]

Bulavinov later claimed that deputies had been offered between 15 and 30 million rubles to vote against him, and up to 50 million on the final day; the deputies expressed outrage at this statement but did not take it to court. ^[13]

I do not believe he can provide a powerful impetus for the dynamic development of the city that Nizhny Novgorod needs at this stage

My candidacy was not supported by the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region; the Duma could have been split, and to avoid that split, I withdrew.

The case concerning the city's share in the Fantastika shopping center

The proceedings concerned events of 2005, when the companies Start-Stroy and Delta-Stroy received a plot on Rodionov Street for the Fantastika shopping and entertainment center. According to the investigation's account, publicly presented by official Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin, the mayor exempted the companies from a payment required under municipal regulations — 7% of the completed center's value — while his son Evgeniy joined the list of founders with a 22.25% stake; the damage to the city budget was estimated at more than 600 million rubles, funds that were meant to be used for relocating residents of dilapidated housing. ^[11][12][13]

On June 18, 2010, the head of the regional investigative department, Vladimir Stravinskas, signed an order opening a case under Part 2 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but the prosecutor's office overturned it "due to insufficient evidence." The case was opened again in the autumn and winter of 2010, and each time it was dropped. ^[10][11][13]

On December 30, 2010, the Central Election Commission transferred a vacant State Duma deputy's mandate to Bulavinov, and the investigation materials were sent to Moscow. In late January 2013, the Investigative Committee submitted a petition to the Prosecutor General's Office seeking the removal of his parliamentary immunity; on March 12, 2013, Bulavinov himself wrote in a microblog that the submission would reach the Duma by March 16. ^[11][12]

Bulavinov called the case a hit job and linked it to Oleg Sorokin, who had built Fantastika. The city's share, he explained, was taken not in money but in land near the Kremlin, where a church was subsequently restored; his son had sold his stake to Sorokin. In a 2024 interview, he said that the Prosecutor General's Office had responded that there was no criminal offense — not even the underlying event itself. The submission seeking removal of his immunity never reached the Duma, and Bulavinov remained a deputy until the end of the parliamentary term. ^[13][26][22]

I am certain that I have not done anything unlawful, and I will advocate for the deputies to sort out this situation

Back in the State Duma (2010–2026)

The vacant mandate of the fifth convocation became available after deputy Valery Kornilov relinquished his seat for personal reasons; it was first offered to Governor Shantsev, who declined, and so the mandate passed to the next person on the list — Bulavinov. In January 2011 he submitted a resignation from his seat in the City Duma. ^[16][17]

In December 2007, Bulavinov had run for the State Duma as the second name on the Nizhny Novgorod list of United Russia, but declined the mandate and remained Mayor. In 2011 he was again elected on the party list; in the sixth convocation he served on the committee for civil, criminal, arbitration, and procedural legislation, and in the autumn of 2012 was among the candidates for the position of head of the United Russia faction. ^{[22][4][9][5]}

On 18 September 2016, Bulavinov won in Kanavinsky single-member constituency No. 132, and in the seventh convocation became deputy chairman of the committee on housing policy and housing and utilities. In the autumn of 2017, the presidium of the regional political council supported his appointment as acting secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of United Russia; on 4 December 2017 he resigned from that position "of his own volition due to illness." ^[22][24][25]

On 19 September 2021, Bulavinov was again elected in the same constituency No. 132. In the eighth convocation he served on the committee for construction and housing and utilities, and on the commission for ensuring citizens' housing rights. According to him, he spent three working days in Moscow and returned to Nizhny Novgorod for the weekends; he never wanted to live in the capital. ^[23][26]

In 2021, the City Duma awarded him the title of Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod. ^[39]

Looking back: a 2024 interview

A decade and a half later, Bulavinov gave his account of the events of 2010. The abolition of direct elections, he said, was lobbied for by Governor Valery Shantsev, and the decision to move away from them was made at the federal level: he learned of the directive from Vladislav Surkov. Speaking in the Duma, Bulavinov said he remained a supporter of direct elections but was asking deputies to approve the charter amendments. ^[26]

He explained the "Fantastika" story as follows: the land order for the developer had been issued by Yuri Lebedev, and the initiative to give up the plot near the Kremlin came from the diocese, which wanted to revive the church that had stood there; a commission involving the diocese and the Stolitsa Nizhny group agreed to a swap — the developer forfeited its invested 60 million rubles and the plot, while the city released it from paying 7%. His son's involvement in the project he called his own mistake, stressing that his son had contributed money on the same terms as everyone else and had taken out a bank loan. ^[26]

Bulavinov described his relationship with Oleg Sorokin as a years-long conflict: he had demanded gifts to the city from developers — six front-end loaders, renovation of the city's first hospital, municipal equipment worth 100 million rubles — and believed that the criminal cases against Sorokin were a "mechanism to remove" him from his post. He spoke of the fate of the two Olegs — Sorokin and Kondrashov — without gloating, calling Sorokin the best developer he knew and recalling that he had warned Kondrashov about the responsibilities of a city administration head. ^[26]

A separate thread in the interview concerned the land of the Tsvety state farm: Oleg Deripaska's company had put down a 200-million-ruble deposit, then pulled out of the project; the city kept half the sum, and the tender was won by Zhilstroy-NN, which had committed to providing apartments for the resettlement of residents from dilapidated housing and public-sector workers. ^[26]

Bulavinov had no desire to move to Moscow: in the 1990s he had spent years living in the Rossiya and Moskva hotels, never took a company flat, and when asked about the capital he said he disliked the mentality there: "I am first and foremost a Nizhny Novgorod man." ^[26]

Departure from politics

On 4 December 2025, Bulavinov was presented with a veteran-of-labor certificate; his total length of service stood at 43 years. ^[29]

In March 2026 he announced that he would not stand for the State Duma, describing the decision as "personal and considered." To Regional Legislative Assembly deputy Rustam Dosayev he explained that one must leave at the right time, and that it was time to rest and enjoy life. ^[27]

In the summer of 2026 the former mayor shared updates on village life via social media: he was harvesting strawberries and cucumbers and foraging for chanterelles. In August he shaved off the beard he had worn for 40 years, reported that he was working out at the gym up to five times a week, took a cold spring dip every morning, and had given up alcohol entirely; on his career he said he had "taken a pause," and admitted that over the years he had made no shortage of mistakes "in matters and in people." ^[28]

Public Image

Bulavinov was declared politically dead on multiple occasions — after his 1995 defeat, after the Sadekov murder, after the 2001 gubernatorial election, after 2010 — and each time he came back. By his own account, Aleksandr Khinnshteyn once told him: "You're Teflon-coated." NN.RU called him the "people's mayor." ^[26][27]

Political commentator Sergey Kocherov noted his ability to present himself well and hold an audience, and also observed that with each successive election his biography grew smoother. Bulavinov himself, according to Kocherov, would occasionally say: "I was recently discussing this very topic at a NATO political headquarters…" — and claimed that the Vatican took an interest in him personally. ^[3]

Bulavinov named smoking as his weakness: he had quit for three years before starting again. When asked what could make the city's mayor happy, he replied: "No complaints or petitions from the city's residents." ^[18]

At heart, Vadim Bulavinov is a thoroughly secular, courteous, and charming man — a modern-day commoner who can find common ground with the aesthete intellectual Surkov just as easily as with an ordinary working man from Sormovo.

Family, Interests, Awards

Bulavinov was married several times; his first marriage, entered into before military service, ended after he completed it. He has three sons and a daughter: his eldest son is Evgeniy, and the younger sons were born in 2008 and 2011. ^[26][30][4]

His hobbies include scuba diving, motorcycling, and alpine skiing; in the 1990s, reference guides noted his passion for cars. ^[5][6]

According to declarations published by Lobbying.ru, Bulavinov's income for 2006 amounted to 270.4 million rubles (including income from deposits and the sale of shares), for 2010 — 3.75 million, for 2011 — 107.7 million, and for 2012 — 29.8 million rubles. ^[4]

In urban folklore and caricature

Eight consecutive years as mayor, from 2002 to 2010, made Bulavinov a fixture of local jokes, forum discussions, and caricatures. ^[1][2]

On the NN.RU forum in 2010, users recalled the early days of his service in the militia: according to one participant's account, he patrolled vegetable warehouses, wore a fashionable rain cape, and received a reprimand for failing to prevent a break-in at one of the warehouses. No documentary evidence for this story exists. ^[34]

The website merunet.ru hosted a flash game called "Chudiki-mudiki" ("Oddball Goofballs"), subtitled "Save the City from Parasites," in which caricatured figures clutching bags flee from the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin; viewers recognized them as Vadim Bulavinov and Aleksandr Khinshteyn. In 2010, anonymous leaflets circulated styled as materials from the party Just Russia, containing questions to the mayor about urban problems and his family's property. ^[36]

I know about the very beginning of Bulavinov's service in the militia under the USSR) He patrolled vegetable warehouses (near Fedoseyevna) And he had a fashionable rain cape) By the way, he failed to prevent a robbery at a vegetable warehouse back then, and received a reprimand for it. And then he went to study

So Bulkin flies back from a business trip, and his official car isn't there to meet him, so he decides to take a cab... He walks up to a driver: — Can you get me to the Kremlin in 10 minutes? — Nah... More like 40 minutes... — Damn, I really need to! I'll give you $200! — Fine, get in... So ten minutes later, through some back alleys and rough patches, he gets him to the Kremlin... As he's getting out, Bulkin says to the driver: — Listen, we got here so fast and without an escort — tell me which way you went?! — Nah... I won't say, or you'll go and pave that route with cobblestones too...

Contacts and blog

During his years as a deputy in the State Duma, Bulavinov's reception office was located at: 103265, Moscow, Okhotny Ryad Street, building 1; telephone 692-62-66, fax 697-42-58. ^[5]

Bulavinov maintained a personal blog on NN.RU — blogbulavinov.www.nn.ru, which featured posts from the series "A Frank Conversation with Vadim Bulavinov." ^[37]

Sources

1. Vremya N — analytics on the history of Nizhny Novgorod's city governance — Nizhny Novgorod Mayor: Who Is He? (archive)
2. V gorode N — on the fates of former Nizhny Novgorod mayors — Masters of Nizhny Novgorod: Where They Live and What Former Mayors Are Doing Now (archive)
3. polit.nnov.ru — Polit.NNOV.RU — political portrait, author Sergey Kocherov, October 3, 2005 — Vadim Bulavinov
4. lobbying.ru — biographical profile and income declarations — Profile: Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich
5. mydeputy.ru — biography of a State Duma deputy — Biography: Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich
6. web.archive.org — chronicle of 1993–1995 — Vadim Bulavinov (archive)
7. web.archive.org — Administration of Nizhny Novgorod — section on the history of city self-governance — Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich. The First Mayor of the 21st Century (archive)
8. web.archive.org — Administration of Nizhny Novgorod — essay on the history of local self-governance, 2009 edition — History of Local Self-Governance in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
9. web.archive.org — Vedomosti — persons directory — Vadim Bulavinov (archive)
10. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant, October 15, 2010 — Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Suspected of Interest in "Fantastika" (archive)
11. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod), January 31, 2013 — Investigation Gets Absorbed in "Fantastika"
12. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant, March 13, 2013 — Vadim Bulavinov Ready for the Start of the Show (archive)
13. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Ogonyok, February 11, 2013, author Viktor Mayorov — The Hour of Embezzlement Has Struck (archive)
14. web.archive.org — Shantsev Will Not Nominate Bulavinov for the Post of Nizhny Novgorod Mayor (archive)
15. web.archive.org — Bulavinov Will Not Run for the Post of Nizhny Novgorod Mayor (archive)
16. web.archive.org — Vacant State Duma Mandate Received by Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor (archive)
17. gordumannov.ru — City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod — Vadim Bulavinov Has Once Again Become a Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation
18. web.archive.org — NIA "Nizhny Novgorod", November 23, 2007 — interview for the program "Without a Tie" on the Volga television company — Vadim Bulavinov: "Working as Mayor, I Turned Almost Gray" (archive)
19. web.archive.org — NIA "Nizhny Novgorod", March 17, 2009 — "There Will Be No Confrontation with the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region," — Vadim Bulavinov (archive)
20. web.archive.org — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod), April 14, 2004 — The Nizhny Novgorod City Hall "Gets in People's Way" (archive)
21. regnum.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Bulavinov Awarded the Order of St. Daniel, 3rd Degree (archive)
22. rus.team — biographical profile of the deputy — Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich (archive)
23. duma.gov.ru — State Duma — page of the deputy of the eighth convocation — Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich (archive)
24. web.archive.org — NTA-Privolzhye, 2017 — Vadim Bulavinov Appointed Acting Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of United Russia (archive)
25. web.archive.org — United Russia — Bulavinov Submitted a Letter to Turchak Resigning as Acting Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch (archive)
26. NN.RU — NN.RU, April 22, 2024 — interview, correspondent Aleksey Sapozhkov — "Back Then I Was Ruthlessly Taking Everyone Down." Interview with Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Bulavinov (archive)
27. NN.RU — NN.RU, March 29, 2026 — Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Vadim Bulavinov Reveals Why He Really Left Politics
28. nn.aif.ru — AiF — Nizhny Novgorod, August 27, 2026 — Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Vadim Bulavinov Shaved Off His Beard After 40 Years
29. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — December 5, 2025 — Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Bulavinov Recognized as a Veteran of Labor (archive)
30. web.archive.org — Komsomolskaya Pravda — Nizhny Novgorod, June 20, 2011 — Former Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Vadim Bulavinov Becomes a Father for the Fourth Time (archive)
31. polit.nnov.ru — Polit.NNOV.RU — Sergey Kocherov, December 29, 2003 — Sergey Kirienko (Part Two)
32. polit.nnov.ru — Polit.NNOV.RU — Sergey Kocherov, August 12, 2004 — Klimentyev versus Bulavinov
33. polit.nnov.ru — Polit.NNOV.RU — Sergey Kocherov, September 15, 2005 — What Should We Expect from October 16?
34. web.archive.org — NN.RU Forum "Nizhny Novgorod Politics", August 2010 — Bulavinov Could Not Sit on Two Chairs at Once (archive)
35. NN.RU — joke by user Kvadro — A Joke About the Mayor and the Taxi Driver
36. merunet.ru — flash game "Chudiki-Mudiki"
37. web.archive.org — Bulavinov Vadim Yevgenyevich (archive)
38. NN.RU — NN.RU, June 28, 2023 — What Became of the Mayors Who Governed Nizhny Novgorod Since the 2000s (archive)
39. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — on honorary citizens of Nizhny Novgorod — President of Minin University Lev Shaposhnikov Awarded the Title of Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)