Marat Khousnoulline had probably never attracted so much attention outside of Russia. On March 19, it was he who accompanied Vladimir Putin on his late-night — and unexpected — visit to Mariupol. This deputy prime minister served as the Russian president’s guide through a devastated but “liberated” city. The excursion will be filmed and broadcast by the Kremlin. A snub to Kiev and its allies after the International Criminal Court just issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. In Mariupol, darkness hides desolation. Wearing a black cap and jacket, Marat Khousnoulline presents the president with a new residential area with games for children and a street workout area, and outlines the city’s reconstruction plan. Communication is totally controlled, or almost: netizens have spotted the furtive voice of a resident outside the frame who dared to denounce the tricks of the staging.
Still little known to the general public, Marat Khousnoulline has nonetheless secured a good place in Vladimir Putin’s entourage. Deputy Prime Minister, He is now responsible for reporting to the President on actions in the “new regions,” to use Russian state terminology. As early as December 2022, the two men inspected the damage to the Crimean Bridge, which had been partially destroyed two months earlier. Recently, Marat Khousnulline was the first senior Russian official to visit Bakhmout: a preliminary visit to anticipate reconstruction, he said on his Telegram account.
From Kazan to Moscow
Marat Khousnulline, 56, began his career in his native Tatarstan: for nine years he was Minister of Construction in this Russian republic. “He experienced a rapid rise in Tatarstan, which he transformed by developing large projects. The capital of the republic, Kazan, is the only city in post-Soviet Russia that has equipped itself with a subway,” recalls Vladimir Pavlotsky, a doctor in geography and a teacher at the French Institute of Geopolitics. His know-how and efficiency go back to Moscow. In 2010 he was called to the capital, where he was put in charge of the construction department. He does not come alone: in 2018, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper revealed how Marat Khousnulline had promoted his “zemliaki” – relatives from the same place, in this case Tatarstan – to positions of influence.
The targets he receives are ambitious: to bring order to the contracts concluded under former mayor Yuri Luzhkov and to modernize the city. Expansion of its area and its urban network, new residential areas, ring roads. Moscow’s transformation is rapid, sometimes controversial, but universally welcomed. These achievements include the renovation of the Luzhniki Stadium, which impressed foreign visitors during the 2018 FIFA World Cup; the Zariadié urban park, winner of an award at the Mipim (International Market for Real Estate Professionals) and the new business card of the capital. Deputy Mayor Sergei Sobianin Marat Khousnoulline has worked to make Moscow more internationally attractive, notably through a forum on urban planning. For this he also recruited a foreign friend, Maurice Leroy, former French city minister (2010-2012).
“Orchestrate the work”
In January 2020, he left Moscow City Hall to take on federal duties: the technocrat Khousnullin became one of the deputy prime ministers in the government of Mikhail Mikhoustine. Their mission remains the same but extends to the entire country. “I’m above all a technocrat who has to implement politics,” he told Les Echos newspaper in a rare interview with the foreign press at the time. “The government in Russia is not a political entity like in France. It is a governing body. My job is therefore not to make politics, but to orchestrate the work.” During the Covid-19 health crisis, he regularly and extensively reported to President Putin via video conference on the work being done in the different regions of the country. “Marat Khousnulline has a real oriental profile,” assured a source at Moscow City Hall in an informed portrait published by the Meduza website in 2020. The man avoids conflicts, he does not show his differences and asserts his positions in private.
The offensive launched against Ukraine inevitably led them into an “ideological” policy: by hastily ordering the annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories – despite the scandal it caused – the Kremlin gave another dimension to the Deputy Prime Minister’s mission. Marat Khousnulline is now leading the reconstruction of the cities destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine. The former Moscow supporter-turned-Putin founder in a country at war is now one of the Russian figures sanctioned by the European Union and the United States. He is very active on the Telegram network, documenting his numerous trips across Russia and since 2022 to Ukraine under Russian control – he has notably visited Luhansk, Donetsk and the Zaporizhia region. Last November, he presented the rehabilitation of the occupied Ukrainian territories as “Russia’s largest construction project,” which the authorities said was worth 223 billion rubles (2.6 billion euros).
“Efficient manager”
“Marat Khousnoulline is one of those officials who don’t chant insane slogans [Dmitri] Medvedev, and who does not photograph himself with a hammer [référence à une vidéo violente partagée par le chef du groupe Wagner Evguéni Prigojine]. He serves Vladimir Putin faithfully and efficiently,” comments Ilya Rozhdestvenski, a journalist at Dossier, an investigative center founded by exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. “In return, he gets an opportunity to enrich himself.” We call this type of character “effective managers,” but their effectiveness primarily shows in the way they can enrich their family,” he adds, referring based on a survey of the Khousnoulline family conducted by the dossier center This research, published last month, confirms that the sanctions are not reaching his relatives and their properties abroad.
The future of Mariupol, Ukraine’s largest city captured by Russia last year, is an image problem for the authorities: it’s about pushing through the idea that Russian sovereignty is no longer in question. An official document of around thirty pages describes a “development plan” for Mariupol until 2035 as if it were any city in Russia. True to his approach as an artist, Marat Khousnoulline implements the policy to be followed. “For those in the post-Crimean context [l’annexion de la Crimée en 2014, NDLR]”Mariupol has done much to improve the image of Moscow as a global city open to foreign investment,” notes researcher Vladimir Pavlotsky.
In early May, Vladimir Putin attended the opening of the Mariupol tram via video conference from St. Petersburg. On site, the veterans “compared the destruction in Mariupol with the destruction during the blockade.” [de Leningrad] during the Great Patriotic War [nom donné à la Seconde Guerre mondiale]”, emphasizes a state medium in an ideological acrobatics. The two cities have become “sister cities”. In the same sense, the city of Moscow was associated with Luhansk. The mayor of the Russian capital, who apparently observed a certain reticence about the “special military operation” last year. A visible commitment imposed by the reality of war in favor of such a toxic political adventure as uncertain.