Savchenko against Subbotin on March 15
The second election round in the Murmansk city mayor’s elections are due 15 March. Current city Mayor Mikhail Savchenko is up against former deputy governor Sergey Subbotin.
None of the two men got the necessary 50 percent of the votes in the 1 March elections and a second round is subsequently needed. As BarentsObserver reported, Mr. Savchenko in the first round got 31 percent of the votes, while Subbotin got 24 percent.
While Mikhail Savchenko represents the United Russia Party, Sergey Subbotin runs as an independent candidate.
Savchenko has served as city mayor since 2004. He has long working experience from the city administration, first as deputy mayor under former city leader Oleg Naydenov since 1991, later as acting mayor. As BarentsObserver reported in 2004, he won that year’s election comfortably against the United Russia’s then official candidate Igor Saburov.
Sergey Subbotin has worked as deputy governor in the Murmansk Oblast administration since 2001. He has there been responsible for security issues and counter corruption work. In the late 1980s, he worked as intelligence office in Berlin, Germany.
According to newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, the work of Mr. Subbotin is one of the reasons why corruption level in Murmansk is considered among the lowest in Russia.
