On November 28, the mayor of Makhachkala, Salman Dadaev, announced at a session of the city meeting that he was leaving his post. He did not hide that the reason for his early resignation was a conflict with the head of the republic, Sergei Melikov.
“It’s no secret: the leadership of the republic and I have different views on the development of the city,” said Dadaev, calling on deputies to accept his resignation. “And in this situation, the townspeople should not suffer... This city needs new blood, a new drive, and an approach to old problems need to be solved in a new way. So that our differences do not serve as an obstacle to this, I propose to consider the issue of resigning my powers.”
The deputies did not want to let the mayor go, they proposed to postpone this issue until the next session, but after Dadaev’s repeated insistent request, they still voted for his resignation.
Rizvan Gazimagomedov, who was appointed vice-mayor on November 22, became the acting head of the city. Before that, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan, was the Minister of Industry and Energy of the Republic, Advisor to the Minister of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs, and Executive Director of Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Dagestan LLC. His figure is seen as a compromise figure that suits various groups in the power circles of the republic.
Salman Dadaev has led Makhachkala since January 2019. Before that, he headed the administration of the Basmanny district of Moscow for two years. He was lured to Makhachkala by the former head of Dagestan, Vladimir Vasiliev. Dadaev then named his priority tasks as restoring the townspeople’s trust in the authorities and eradicating corruption.
The head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, who replaced Vasiliev in this post, immediately entered into confrontation with the mayor. First, he harshly reprimanded Dadaev for not informing him in time about the introduction of the CTO regime in the city after the shootout with the security forces. Then he expressed disapproval of the spending of funds on the improvement of Makhachkala.
Experts and residents of Makhachkala, assessing the results of Dadaev’s four-year work as mayor, first of all note his openness, atypical for Caucasian officials, his willingness to interact with civil activists, and promptly respond to criticism on social networks. In 2019, Salman Dadaev even gave a tour of the city for the famous blogger Ilya Varlamov as part of his “Big Road with the Mayor” program. The head of Makhachkala turned out to be the only mayor in the North Caucasus who agreed to such a meeting with the scandalous blogger.
While acknowledging that this was largely for PR purposes, observers nonetheless see this style of communication as a useful example for other government officials.
Of the real cases, Dadaev is credited primarily with the return of municipal lands - he initiated a whole series of lawsuits, which resulted in the revocation of documents for plots and construction permits issued under the previous leadership of the city. At the same time, in Makhachkala, despite protests from activists, construction of a temple began in a park near Lake Ak-Gel.
The townspeople also remembered the improvement of the center of Makhachkala - Korkmasov Street, which was generally favorably received by residents and guests of the Dagestan capital.
In addition, Dadaev tried to begin modernizing the city's transport system, which had been in private hands for many years.
However, most of Makhachkala's problems remained unresolved. Among them are interruptions in electricity and water supply due to wear and tear of utility networks, a garbage dump under the city and the lack of treatment facilities, due to which all city wastewater is discharged untreated into the Caspian Sea, poor public transport, and disorderly development.
After his resignation, Dadaev returned to work in one of the prefectures of Moscow. Before leaving, he handed over to activists of the “Our City” movement a folder with a list of plots that the administration had seized from illegal owners, with a request to continue to exercise public control over construction in the city.
As for the fight against corruption, which Dadaev spoke about when taking office, no success was noticed. But journalists noticed an expensive watch on his wrist, and he was seen in a Louis Vuitton boutique on vacation in Bodrum, Turkey.