Outside Russia, Marat Khousnoullin had probably never attracted so much attention. On March 19, it was he who accompanied Vladimir Putin on his nocturnal – and unexpected – visit to Mariupol. This deputy prime minister served as a guide for the Russian president through a devastated but "liberated" city. The excursion is filmed and broadcast by the Kremlin. A thumb of the nose at Kiev and its allies, while the International Criminal Court had just issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. In Mariupol, darkness masks desolation. Black cap and jacket, Marat Khousnoulline presents to the president a new residential area, with games for children and street workout area, and exposes the plan for the reconstruction of the city. Communication is perfectly controlled, or almost: Internet users have spotted the furtive voice, out of frame, of a resident daring to denounce the deception of the staging.

Still little known to the general public, Marat Khousnoulline has nevertheless acquired a good place in Vladimir Putin's entourage. Deputy Prime Minister, he is now the one who is responsible for reporting to the President on the actions undertaken in the "new regions", according to the terminology used by the Russian State. Already in December 2022, the two men were jointly inspecting the damage caused to the Crimean bridge, partially destroyed two months earlier. More recently, Marat Khousnoullin was the first senior Russian official to visit Bakhmut: a preliminary visit to anticipate reconstruction, he said on his Telegram account.

Kazan to Moscow

Marat Khousnoullin, 56, began his career in his native Tatarstan, where he served as the Russian Republic's construction minister for nine years. "He had a rapid rise in Tatarstan, which he helped transform by developing big projects. The capital of the Republic, Kazan, is the only city in post-Soviet Russia that has a metro," said Vladimir Pawlotsky, a doctor of geography and professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics. Its know-how and efficiency go all the way back to Moscow. In 2010, he was called to the capital and was entrusted with the construction department. He does not come alone: in 2018, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta revealed how Marat Khousnoullin had placed his "zemliaki" – relatives from the same place, in this case Tatarstan – in influential positions.

The specifications he received were ambitious: to put the contracts concluded under former mayor Yuri Luzhkov in order and to modernise the city. Extension of its surface area and metropolitan network, new residential districts, ring roads. Moscow's transformation is rapid, sometimes contested, but generally welcomed. Among these successes were the renovation of the Luzhniki Stadium, which impressed foreign visitors during the 2018 FIFA World Cup; the Zaryadyé urban park, winner of an award at Mipim (International Market of Real Estate Professionals) and new business card of the capital. Deputy Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Marat Khousnoullin has worked to make Moscow more attractive internationally, notably through a forum devoted to urban planning. For this, he also recruited a foreign friend, Maurice Leroy, former French Minister of the City (2010-2012).

"Orchestrating the work"

In January 2020, he left the Moscow City Hall to take federal responsibilities: the technocrat Khusnoullin became one of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Mikhail Mishustin's government. Its mission remains the same, but extended to the entire country. "I am above all a technocrat who must carry out policies," he told the newspaper Les Échos, in a rare interview with the foreign press. "The government in Russia is not a political entity as it is in France. It is a management body. My mission is therefore not to do politics but to orchestrate the work." During the Covid-19 health crisis, he draws up regular and detailed reports to President Putin, by videoconference, on the work undertaken in the different regions of the country. "Marat Khousnoullin has a real oriental profile," said a source at the Moscow City Hall, in an informed portrait published in 2020 by the Meduza website. The man avoids conflicts, he does not display his disagreements and asserts his positions in private.

The offensive launched against Ukraine inevitably led it towards "ideological" politics: by hastily decreeing the annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories – and despite the scandal caused by it – the Kremlin gave another dimension to the Deputy Prime Minister's mission. Marat Khousnoulline is now leading the reconstruction of destroyed cities in Ukraine... by Russian forces. Having become Putin's builder in a country at war, the former Moscow promoter is now one of the Russian personalities sanctioned by the European Union and the United States. Very active on the Telegram network, he documents his many trips across Russia and, since 2022, in Ukraine under Russian control – he has visited Luhansk, Donetsk and the Zaporizhzhya region. Last November, he presented the rehabilitation of the invaded Ukrainian territories as "the largest construction project in Russia", estimated, according to the authorities, at 223 billion rubles (2.6 billion euros).

"Effective Manager"

"Marat Khusnoulline is one of those officials who don't chant delusional slogans like [Dmitri] Medvedev, and who doesn't photograph himself with a hammer [a reference to a violent video shared by Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin]. He serves Vladimir Putin faithfully and effectively," said Ilya Rozhdestvensky, a journalist with Dossier, an investigative center founded by exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. "In exchange, he receives the opportunity to enrich himself. These types of characters are called 'effective managers', but their effectiveness is mainly manifested in the way they know how to enrich their family," he adds, referring to an investigation into the Khousnoulline family conducted by the Dossier center. Published last month, the investigation says the sanctions are not reaching his relatives and their real estate abroad.

The future of Mariupol, the largest Ukrainian city taken by Russia last year, is an image issue for the authorities: it is a question of imposing the idea that Russian sovereignty is no longer questionable. An official document of about thirty pages details a "development plan" of Mariupol by 2035, as if it were any city in Russia. Faithful to his approach as an implementer, Marat Khousnoulline implements the policy to be followed. "For him who, in the post-Crimea context [the annexation of Crimea in 2014, editor's note], has done a lot to improve Moscow's image, that of a global city open to foreign investment, Mariupol appears to be a poisoned field," observes researcher Vladimir Pawlotsky.

In early May, Vladimir Putin attended the launch of the Mariupol tram service via videoconference from St. Petersburg. On the spot, veterans "compared the destruction in Mariupol with that which occurred during the blockade [of Leningrad] during the Great Patriotic War [the name given to the Second World War]," said an ideological acrobatic state media. The two cities were "twinned". In the same spirit, the city of Moscow has been associated with Luhansk. The mayor of the Russian capital, who had appeared to have some reservations about the "special military operation", visited the site last year. A visible commitment imposed by the reality of war, in favor of a political adventure as toxic as it is uncertain.

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