The Kirov region boasted to the representative with figures "from the head"?

      Let us remind you that today, June 23, the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, Igor Komarov, arrived in Kirov. Shortly after his arrival, the regional government published a release announcing Komarov's meeting with Governor Alexander Sokolov. The latter stated that the economy of the Kirov region is showing "stable development."

      The release included a number of figures, apparently presented to the envoy. Some of them matched the data from Kirovstat — for example, a 7% increase in the industrial production index and a 3.3% increase in agricultural production volumes for January-April 2026. However, there was a discrepancy with the gross regional product.

      The release stated: "The volume of the gross regional product has more than doubled since 2021." Recently, the government reported that this indicator for 2025 was about 740 billion rubles. We found old releases from Kirovstat stating that in 2021, the GRP was 481.4 billion rubles. The new figure is only 1.53 times greater than that. Even if we take the GRP from 2020, which was 395.9 billion rubles, the growth is 1.86 times. Perhaps a twofold increase will be achieved by the end of 2026, but it is still too early to say. It is also possible that the authorities used fresh data for the elapsed period of 2026 in their calculations, but there has been no official statistics for this period yet.

      In addition, Kirov officials boasted that the region ranked first in the Volga Federal District in terms of the total fertility rate (TFR), partly due to the "salaries" of mothers and grandmothers. Let us remind you that the TFR indicates how many children are born on average to one woman. We should also note that the "grandmothers' salaries" were officially approved only a month ago. It remains to be seen how local residents could have been motivated to conceive, carry, and give birth to children in such a short time for the indicator to rise slightly.

      It is worth noting that, according to the fedstat.ru website, the TFR in the Kirov region is rapidly and inevitably declining. Thus, in 2014-2016 it was 1.9, in 2017 — 1.7, in 2018-2022 — 1.5-1.6, and in 2023-2025 — 1.4. Moreover, if in 2023 it was 1.473, then in 2024 it was already 1.432, and in 2025 it dropped to 1.418. As stated in open sources, to maintain the population at the previous level, a total fertility rate of about 2.1 is needed. Therefore, Kirov region definitely cannot boast of this indicator. And if we are the best here in the Volga Federal District, it only means that the population in our region is declining slightly slower than in others.

      Attention should also be paid to other points. For example, the authorities boasted about milk production. However, other products and services were not mentioned in the release. If we take the latest data from Kirovstat on production in the Kirov region, it turns out that many indicators for January-April 2026 have decreased. In particular, the extraction of minerals (by as much as 18.2%), the production of medicines, vehicles, equipment, leather goods, metallurgical products, furniture, rubber, plastics, clothing, chemicals, beverages, and mineral products. The volumes of services for machine repair and equipment installation also decreased. So, there is indeed little to boast about.

      Finally, the government drew the envoy's attention to a number of projects. Such as the campus (the creation of which is still very much in question), new buses (many of which are leased), and the construction of a logistics center (which is actually an initiative of a private firm). The cherry on top was the achievement of constructing kindergartens and roads.