The mass destruction of livestock in Siberia ended with the dismissal of the minister of agriculture.

The continuation of the story of the mass destruction of livestock belonging to farmers in Siberia was the dismissal of Andrey Viktorovich Shindelov, the Minister of Agriculture of the Novosibirsk Region. He is the very same official who, according to local residents, ran away from them instead of giving explanations about the problem. In the region, Shindelov was responsible for the agricultural sector and, at the same time, for natural resources and ecology in his capacity as deputy chairman of the regional government.

Let me remind you that on March 16, 2026, farmer Svetlana Panina came to see Shindelov in order to obtain documents regarding the destruction of livestock; the secretary referred to the minister’s busy schedule, but Panina managed to catch him, after which, according to Gazeta.Ru, he withdrew from the conversation and quickly walked away down the corridor, shouting: “I did not deprive [you of your farm].”

He ran away! He was unable to provide either explanations or documents and simply decided to “quietly slip away,” while at the same time demonstrating serious defects in the system of governance, where, apparently, no one is responsible for anything and no one wants to be.

In general, there are oddities here.

Many people know that politics is like a game of chess, where major events and plans of action are thought through in advance. Robert Greene, the author of the legendary book “The 48 Laws of Power,” wrote in his works:

“Imagine a battle or conflict as something existing on a kind of chessboard.”

Or one of the most recognizable political scientists and theorists of American foreign policy in the second half of the twentieth century, Zbigniew Brzezinski, said in his book:

“Eurasia is a chessboard on which the struggle for global supremacy continues to be played, and that struggle involves geostrategy — the strategic management of geopolitical interests.”

Comparing politics to chess is a popular and actively used mechanism, and it is not abstract in the slightest. Pieces must be placed in advance, actions must be planned thoughtfully, while also assessing the next moves of one’s opponents. And chess can be played with anyone — with other politicians or even with society itself.

So, Andrey Shindelov served as acting minister from July 4, 2024, and by August 19, 2024, he was officially appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Novosibirsk Region — Minister of Agriculture. The “piece” was placed on the chessboard.

Even then, this caused discontent among the region’s own politicians: they did not understand why, and who had given the order, to appoint Shindelov as minister, since he had always been associated with the agrarian university rather than with strong crisis management on the scale of an entire region. I want to emphasize this: everyone understood that this was not his position, and there were many questions even then.

By the autumn of 2024, he had already become a problem, simply because he did not understand how to run a ministry on the scale of an entire region; for example, on December 5 deputies reported that a significant part of the support funds had still not reached the farms, and this issue dragged on further. But he was still kept in office and not removed, which, again, provoked discussions within political circles: “Why was he appointed minister, and what is he doing here?”

And then came February–March 2026, with the mass seizure and destruction of domestic livestock across the entire region. People report that there are no documents, that laws are being violated, that the cattle are literally squealing in pain right in the fire, burning alive. There is no dialogue whatsoever; instead, the authorities deployed security forces, threatened people with OMON, and so on.

First, all the farmers’ livestock was destroyed. The scandal spread across the entire country; it was a real catastrophe, because people lost absolutely everything they had. Naturally, it was impossible to contain this, and some kind of action became necessary in order to cool the “heated fervor” of local residents and of the entire country, which unanimously supported its fellow citizens and demanded a solution to the problem.

Then, on April 14, 2026, a public drubbing was carried out in the Legislative Assembly. Deputy Roman Yakovlev stated that the minister “failed to cope with the challenges”; Deputy Konstantin Tereshchenko raised the issue of personnel and efficiency; the chairman of the профильный committee, Denis Subbotin, spoke of chronically poor rates in the delivery of state support. The committee even initiated amendments to the regional charter so that the candidacy of a future minister would have to be coordinated with parliament.

In short, everyone collectively expressed no confidence in the minister, and on April 20, 2026, Governor Travnikov stated that many questions had accumulated regarding Shindelov. Accusations followed concerning the slow delivery of support to agricultural producers, failures in the implementation of rural development programs, and an insufficient level of veterinary safety. In other words, it was precisely he who was blamed for the complete failure of the management system, and he was removed from office.

I want to return to August 19, 2024, and publish the following quote:

“As of today, Andrey Viktorovich Shindelov has been appointed to the position of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Novosibirsk Region — Minister of Agriculture,” Travnikov said.

And then the quote from April 20, 2026:

“I am announcing the resignation of my deputy responsible for the block of agriculture, natural resources, and ecology, Andrey Viktorovich Shindelov.”

So, it was the governor himself who brought him to power, the failure in governance was visible immediately, yet nothing followed. They waited for a real catastrophe and only then removed him from office.

Well, I can say only one thing: either Mr. Travnikov is a terrible chess player and the region needs a new governor, or he played his game perfectly, in which Shindelov was no more than a pawn on the board.

Let us sum up.

At the moment, the situation is this: the animals have already been destroyed, and many people have effectively lost their entire farms. There were appeals, statements, and public pressure. We, among other things, published an open appeal to the Investigative Committee, submitted statements, and also prepared and distributed recommendations for farmers whose households had not yet been struck by the disaster — how to act if officials came to them, what to say, what to demand, and how to defend their rights.

Despite all this, and although the scandal was nationwide, in the public sphere the full scale of the tragedy has already been reduced to a кадровое decision — the removal of a single minister. This is the most convenient option for the system in order to put a full stop to the matter: public outrage has already been vented, a formal culprit has been designated, while the actual problem of the mass destruction of livestock, the damage done to people, the legality of the procedures, and the responsibility of all those involved is being pushed into the background.

© PAVEL PASHKOV