Alexey Vladimirovich Ostrovsky is a politician of the Russian Federation. For three years he was the governor of the Smolensk region. Member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Childhood and youth
The future governor of the Smolensk region Alexey Ostrovsky was born in Moscow. This happened on January 14, 1976. His mother was a teacher in a simple school, and his father worked as an engineer at one of the country's closed enterprises.
Alexey Ostrovsky studied at the Physics and Mathematics School at the USSR Academy of Pedagogy. And dreamed of following in the footsteps of his father. But that all changed when his dad passed away in 1988.
So that his son would be in business and not go around in dubious companies, his mother took the boy to the Palace of Pioneers, where a film school had recently opened. For three years he studied in the department of camera work, he learned the basics of this art. It was at that time that Alexey Ostrovsky got acquainted with photography quite closely. Love for the reporting genre predetermined his future path.
The beginning of professional activity
He began to build his career from the age of fifteen. The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets was looking for a sensible photographer in its staff. A competition was held, and Alex, ahead of venerable professionals, got a job. Of course, not official, as age has not yet allowed. He spent the first half of the day at school, and then flew to his favorite job.
Ostrovsky’s career quickly gained momentum, and soon he began to print even in foreign publications. At sixteen he became a freelance photographer for The New York Times, Newswick, and The Guardian.
The young man did not stop there. He was fascinated by video art. He began working for foreign television companies and in his childhood, one might say, he visited with operators in many hot spots, making unimaginable reports.
However, a photojournalist and embarrassment happened in his career. The Washington Post newspaper revealed a scam, pointing out material falsification by Time magazine. For the latter, Ostrovsky was reporting on child prostitution. It turned out that everything from the first to the last frame was staged, and the children, filmed by Alexei, were small actors.
In 1993, Alexey Ostrovsky received a new interesting task. He was supposed to make material about Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The correspondent spent several months next to the politician, and they unusually made friends. And when the LDPR leader offered Alexei a job, he agreed without hesitation.
This period of Ostrovsky’s life was reflected in the film Stringer, where he was played by young Sergei Bodrov.
In 2000, Alexei graduated from the Faculty of World Economy of the Moscow State University of Economics, and three years later he received the second degree at MGIMO at the Law Faculty.
Career in politics
After Zhirinovsky’s invitation, he first worked in the LDPR youth organization, then he came to the party’s press service, and after a while he headed it. He took part in the international activities of the faction. And later he became the personal assistant of V.V. Zhirinovsky.
In 2003, after the proposal of the chief, he ran for the State Duma and was elected from the Liberal Democratic Party. He dealt with many issues for four years:
- international affairs;
- information policy;
- credential issues;
- deputy ethics;
- the practice of ensuring human rights and freedoms in foreign countries.
He was also elected to the State Duma of the new convocation from the LDPR in 2007. He was the chairman of the committee on the CIS and relations with compatriots.
In 2011, Alexei Ostrovsky oversaw issues of religious organizations and public associations in the State Duma of the sixth convocation.
Governor
In April 2012, Sergei Antufiev, Governor of the Smolensk Region, resigned. Alexey Ostrovsky appointed interim head of the region. This decision of the government was called strange. For the first time, not a member of United Russia was admitted to such a position, but most importantly, a person who had no experience in such work, he had no idea about the national economy.
Earlier, ex-officials or businessmen became governors, and Ostrovsky was a former photographer with a damaged reputation (due to a staged report).
The region went to Alexei Vladimirovich rather problematic. In a matter of time he had to prepare for the large-scale anniversary of the city. Almost nothing was done, the construction of new facilities was behind schedule, there were not enough funds (in fact, Ostrovsky’s predecessor was removed from the post for the theft of these). The new governor did an excellent job.
They talked about him as the head of the region, able to solve any issues. He personally controlled even garbage collection from the city streets. Ostrovsky also began a lot of work to attract investment in the region.
For a while Alexey Ostrovsky, the governor with no experience, received many hairpins in his address. Everyone wanted to see the results immediately. In numerous interviews, he stated that this was unrealistic, because the region went to him with a debt of over fifteen billion rubles.
After three years of fruitful work, Ostrovsky asked the President to relieve him of his post. Now he is temporarily acting as head of the region (until the September elections).
Criticism
Alexei Ostrovsky, for whom photography has long been a major professional activity, has heard criticism about this many times. He was called a PR manager, but not a governor-business executive.
They were criticized and his appointment of some persons to high posts. For example, in June 2012, V. Stepchenkov became the head of the health department, who had previously been implicated in financial fraud and witnessed in several criminal cases.
In 2012, due to dubious staffing decisions, Ostrovsky’s rating fell by dozens of positions, but already at the end of 2013 he became 39 in the rating of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications. He entered the group of governors with great influence.
