The best city Mayor Subbotin can do is to resign, member of the regional parliament Andrey Musatian told the press. –He is a bad manager, the parliament deputy added, newspaper Kommersant reports.
Pressure has been gradually mounting on city Mayor Subbotin since he last spring won the local elections in Murmansk. He then comfortably beat Mikhail Savchenko, the sitting mayor and official candidate of the United Russia. The victory came after a serious of scandals, which involved former regional governor Yuri Yevdokimov.
Yevdokimov had actively supported the candidacy of Subbotin, his former deputy, and openly criticized United Russia for its election tactics. That disgraced the governor and was one of the reasons why he was forced to resign from office.
Lately, several powerful people in Murmansk have voiced criticism of Mayor Subbotin. Reportedly, also Prime Minister Vladimir Putin complained about the state of affairs in the city when visiting Murmansk on 19 April. According to Sergey Musatian, the mayor should voluntarily resign before 27 May, if not he will be forced to step down.
Subbotin, a former long-time officer in the FSB, has also been criticized from parts of the local public. As reported by BarentsObserver, the mayor was earlier this year accused for censorship and threats by the editor in a Murmansk news paper.
