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Arkhangelsk mayor inaugurated

Viktor Pavlenko (arhcity.ru)

Viktor Pavlenko was on Sunday inagurated in the post as new city mayor of Arkhangelsk. In the ceremony, he was officially handed over the city powers from regional Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk.

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Mr. Pavlenko takes over the position from Aleksandr Donskoy, the man who ended up half a year in jail after having a conflict with previous regional governor Nikolay Kiselyov.

In his speech, Viktor Pavlenko said that he “promises to observe and protect the Russian Constitution, the statutes of Arkhangelsk Oblast and of the city of Arkhangelsk”. He also said that he will “respect and protect the rights and freedoms of the people living in the city”, a press release from the local administration reads.

In his official greeting, regional Governor Mikhalchuk reiterated that he sees Mr. Pavlenko as the right man for the post. Mikhalchuk in the election campaign gave major support to candidate Pavlenko

Mr. Pavlenko comes from the post as deputy mayor. He won the elections with only 154 votes. Only 18,22 percent of the electorate participated in the vote.

The election win of Viktor Pavlenko is highly disputed by the political opposition and by big parts of the public, who accuse Pavlenko and his associates in the regional administration of having falsified the city mayor’s elections which took place two weeks ago. The local election commission first declared opposition candidate Larisa Bazanova election winner with only 70 votes. Then a recount of the votes, demanded by Acting Mayor Pavlenko, shifted the results in the power establishment’s favour