Last Wednesday 39 deputies of St Petersburg city hall voted for a corresponding bill that had to be passed in a special way. The matter is that the “regular” giving of the honorary title had been done a week before and the Metrostroi head Vadim Alexandrov and academician Natalia Bekhtereva became honorary freemen of St Petersburg.   

But then Zenith won the UEFA Cup, which was used widely for PR campaign for the city’s and the Kremlin’s administrations. So it was decided to make an exception for Dick Advocat. Doing so took violation of the standing law on honorary freemanship in respect of three points: first, nomination must be made before 1 March; second, the title is given at the last meeting of the Legislative Assembly on the eve of the City Day on 27 May; third, annually the title is given to no more than two persons.     

As an honorary freeman, Mr. Advocat will enjoy the right of legislative initiative, the right of being received by the governor and the speaker of the city’s parliament. He will also be entitled to free use of public transportation and to receiving 10,000 rubles (about $400) monthly from the city’s budget. The last thing is especially important for the coach whose salary is 4.5 million Euros per year!    

And such famous St Petersburg dwellers like Oleg Basilashvili or Yuri Temirkanov have been left without the freemanship for many years. Every time the deputies lament that there are too many deserving people while the limit of honorary nomination is restricted. Well, the limit was canceled for Dick Advocat and never was canceled for Basilashvili and Temirkanov.    

The reason for that is clear. With rare exception, the freemanship is given on the basis of preliminary agreements inside of a very narrow authority circle and it is given only to persons who were never noticed to be disloyal. The loud story has just happened in the city about three freemen – legendary alpinist Mikhail Bobrov, twice Olympic champion Yuri Tiukalov and six-time Olympic champion Liubov Egorova – who gave up their signatures under the letter for protection of historical center of St Petersburg. The above mentioned persons called off their signatures after a “serious” talk with the vice-governor Viktor Lobko. Moreover, they published a penitential letter in the newspapers where they apologized to the governor and promised not to sign anything without arrangement done to the officials.      

It’s clear that such a trick would not be possible with Basilashvili or Temirkanov. Basilashvili, for example, dares to protest publicly against the favored project by the city’s administration and Gazprom – that’s the sky scraper “Okhta-Center”. And the conductor Gergiev advertises this project in the video clips by Gazprom.     

Dick Advocat was not noticed to be protesting against “Gaz-sky-scraper” either.