On the channel "Saint Petersburg" they are looking for an employee who turned on the wrong record during the "air" of the governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, thereby exposing the forgery. It is reported by "Rotonda".
On December 10, a “direct line” was organized in Smolny with Beglov, who was supposed to communicate with citizens in real time and answer their questions. During the broadcast, Alexander Beglov was asked questions by his press secretary Inna Karpushina.
However, it turned out that Beglov's speech was recorded in advance – viewers found out about it at the moment when, at the 50th minute of the "direct line", the governor suddenly said that "he has been working for two hours." This part of the program was supposed to be the final one, but went on the air due to the fact that one of the channel's employees "mixed up the buttons" and launched it at the wrong time, says the Rotunda's interlocutor in Smolny.
After that, the broadcast was interrupted, and after about 50 minutes, Beglov had to go on a real live broadcast, says the source of the Rotunda. According to him, the incident is being investigated on the TV channel and in Smolny, but a final conclusion has not yet been reached.
The first part of the "straight line" lasted 51 minutes, the second – 19 minutes.
As versions of the cause of the incident, they called "the poor condition of the employee who provided the air" and "the most powerful cyber attack" that officials had to reflect.
In addition, the recording of the "direct line" of Governor Alexander Beglov was on the network even before it began. The video was posted on the St. Petersburg SDG page at 11:25 Moscow time, that is, half an hour before the broadcast.
On December 1, media close to businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that the broadcast would take place on December 2. This message appeared even before the "direct line" was announced in Smolny. Prigozhin's comment was published by the press service of his Concord company:
“Tomorrow, December 2, there will be a “direct line” with the Governor of St. Petersburg A.D. Beglov, where he will have to answer the questions of the townspeople. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to send these questions and where they will appear is unclear. Smolny does not give any information. By the way, in front of the “direct line” of the Governor of the Leningrad Region A.Yu. Drozdenko announcement and rules were published in 2 weeks. Therefore, I took the liberty and responsibility to collect the most pressing questions for the governor and send them to the page on the VKontakte network, the press service of Smolny, the reception of the Governor, and also publish them on the VKontakte page and in the telegram channel of the press service Concord company," the statement said.
Prigozhin added that he did not really count on answers – if Beglov sees these questions, then there will be no feedback. “The governor of St. Petersburg is deaf and blind and needs hearing and vision treatment,” Prigogine wrote.
On November 22, “Putin’s cook”, oligarch Prigozhin, in an interview with Nevsky News , said that he had invested up to 2 billion rubles in the election campaign of Governor Beglov and hoped to receive a project for 186 billion rubles from St. Petersburg. According to Prigozhin, before the elections, which were held in 2019 , "an important person" told him that he could spend as much money on the campaign as needed. He promised to return the entire amount, however, according to Prigozhin, this never happened.
At the end of October, Prigozhin asked the Prosecutor General's Office to check Beglov for the creation of an organized criminal group. According to Prigozhin, her possible goals were "plundering the state budget" and "enriching corrupt officials." The press service of the owner of PMC Wagner reports that the application has already been sent to the Prosecutor General's Office. The reason for the protracted and public conflict is that Prigozhin is taking revenge on the governor of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg politicians told The Insider.