Russian city cancels elections in move to oust maverick mayor

Politicians in one of Russia’s largest cities have cancelled an upcoming election in order to oust a mayor who opposed the re-election of Vladimir Putin.

Yevgeny Roizman, a maverick politician and social activist from the city of Yekaterinburg, has been in office since 2013 and has decried the Kremlin’s influence in local politics and Putin’s election to a fourth term in power.

On Tuesday local politicians voted overwhelmingly to cancel direct elections in Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia, in favour of an appointee system by which Roizman is likely to be replaced with a more pliant voice.

Roizman told the Echo of Moscow radio station: “It’s a direct insult to the citizens of Yekaterinburg, a belittling of the status of Yekaterinburg, a show of disrespect to the city, the city’s traditions.”

On Monday thousands of people had protested against the threatened cancellation of direct elections. “We need a mayor, and not a marionette,” read one placard.

It appears likely the decision was tied to the presidential elections but delayed until their conclusion to avoid the impression of a crackdown on dissent. The draft law to cancel direct elections in Yekaterinburg was filed four days after Putin won re-election in a landslide victory marred by accusations of ballot-stuffing and the use of administrative resources to boost turnout.

One of Putin’s loudest critics was Roizman, a rare voice of official opposition in Russia’s industrial Ural mountains region. He had previously told the Guardian that he believed pollsters were inflating Putin’s popularity ratings and that the government would push armies of teachers, factory workers and other budzhetniki, or government workers, to go to the polls. Like the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, he said he planned to boycott the March vote.

The move against Roizman appears to be an early case of score-settling as Putin settles in for another term in power.

Roizman’s position as mayor is largely ceremonial, with an appointed city manager handling most administrative tasks. But his surprise victory in the 2013 elections, built on his reputation as a straight-talker, was a challenge to the Kremlin’s influence on regional politics.

A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday on the decision to cancel the election, saying it was the regional legislature’s prerogative. Roizman said he did not expect to be appointed and probably would not submit his candidacy in September.