Galina Shirshina signed a petition for direct mayoral elections
Press release, 17.10.2017

Elected Mayor of Petrozavodsk Galina Shirshina signed a petition for the return of direct elections of mayors, governors and members of the Federation Council – without any restrictions or filters. The petition was initiated by Grigory Yavlinsky. Direct elections are one of the key points of his presidential electoral programme.

Galina Shirshina claims that the main jobs of an elected mayor is to stand for the residents’ rights. A city manager who is appointed by a commission does not consider the residents as their employers.

“A mayor’s main goal is to ensure that the decisions made by the municipalities are in favour of te residents. He or she must not think whether someone from “the vertical power structure” is pleased with the decision or not,” she said.

According to Shirshina, a mayor should be both a manager and a “leader capable of inspiring the residents to solve local issues”.

Galina Shirshina was elected Mayor of Petrozavodsk in 2013 with support from the Karelian branch of YABLOKO. She won with 41.9 per cent of the vote, her competitor then Mayor of Petrozavodsk Nikolai Levin from the ruling United Russia party received 28.9 per cent of the vote.

Shirshina demonstrated good results on the post, however, had to confront resistance to her anti-corruption action. Consequently, the pro-Governor’s majority of deputies in the Petrozavodsk City Council labelled her work as “unsatisfactory” in 2014. Her team had to face reprisals: criminal cases were filed against her colleagues, members of YABLOKO. On 2 November, Petrozavodsk City Court of the Republic of Karelia sentenced Eugenia Sukhorukova, Deputy Mayor, to three years of imprisonment with a probation period of one year. YABLOKO considers this sentence a revenge of Governor Khudilainen to Shirshina and her team for their consistent anti-corruption and socially oriented policies in the republic.