Okhta Tsenter on the Chopping Block?

Kommersant is reporting that the Russian Minister of Culture, Aleksandr Avdeev, has asked the Prosecutor to investigate the planned construction of Okhta Tsenter, the new headquarters for Gazprom that was to be built in the center of St. Petersburg, on the grounds that the project contradicted federal law.

As usual with these kinds of disputes, I have few doubts that this has anything to do with architectural monstrosities or cultural preservation.

The Kremlinology here is too difficult to interpret this time around, however, as the players involved appear to all be from similar camps. Mr. Avdeev is a former diplomat, who worked his way up through the ranks of the foreign ministry (and probably therefore has relatively close ties to Putin).

Valentina Matvienko, the governor (aka mayor) of St. Petersburg and one of the project's principle backers, is a long-time Putinite, though she was rumored to have fallen out of favor in 2006. In that year an odd little waltz occurred when Matvienko requested Putin to allow her to step down as governor of St. Petersburg, which he did, only to subsequently reappoint her that same year. Matvienko is another former Foreign Ministry hack, having served as Ambassador to Malta and then Greece in the 1990s. She is also a member of the National Security Council of Russia.

Finally, Aleksei Miller, head of Gazprom, could be the odd man out, as his economics background could put him closer to Aleksei Kudrin's disfavored technocrats. But he and Matvienko should be linked by a common interest in the Okhta Tsentr project, meaning that Putin would be striking down one of his own (if, of course, Matvienko's ties to him remain strong). If, on the other hand, Matvienko is actually on the outs with the Prime Minister, this whole move might make sense.

The conclusion? Like any political move in Russia, the lack of transparency here makes everything nearly impossible to decipher. It could be a purely aesthetic choice, or it could be another manifestation of the ongoing influence battles inside the Kremlin.