“Kommersant” learned about the ban on regional officials to rest abroad

Regional authorities in Russia “strongly recommended” local deputies and officials to refrain from vacationing abroad after several high-profile cases, writes “Kommersant”.

In particular, on January 11, the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Alexei Russkikh (KPRF), signed an order “On the specifics of leaving the Russian Federation for the period of the NWO.” According to this document, all persons related to regional and municipal authorities are “recommended” to refrain from traveling abroad during their holidays until further notice. According to Aleksey Preobrazhensky, head of the state-legal department of the governor’s administration, although this cannot be called an official ban, “everyone understands what this recommendation means.”

Similar recommendations were later formulated in the Tambov and Sverdlovsk regions. According to Kommersant, a tacit ban exists in Mari El, North Ossetia and Chuvashia. At the same time, this recommendation has been in effect in the Bryansk region since the beginning of the special operation in February 2022. Then, according to an interlocutor close to the government of the region, the governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz “gathered all the officials and deputies and talked about it there.”

On January 6, Denis Dolzhenko, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Vologda Oblast, posted a photo from his run on his VKontakte page. According to geolocation, the image was taken in Dubai. The deputy wrote that he skies badly, “and running in such a frost is not very comfortable,” so he “listened to the recommendations of weather forecasters, warmed up.” After this post, Secretary of the General Council of United Russia Andrey Turchak promised to deprive Dolzhenko of his party card. “You can do a lot of things in life – run, dive, ski. But there is a time and a place for everything,” Turchak noted. Later, Dolzhenko, in a conversation with Gazeta.ru informedthat he is a non-partisan deputy. January 10 Dolzhenko was excluded of the United Russia supporters, he has not yet been a member of the party – for this he must be among the supporters for at least six months.

On January 7, Turchak also criticized a video greeting from Mexico from the deputy of the Kursk Regional Duma Maxim Vasiliev. In a video that hit the Internet at the end of 2022, Vasilyev pours beer into a glass, congratulates everyone on the upcoming New Year and wishes “a lot of money and a lot of good mood.” Turchak invited him, as well as Vasiliev’s wife, who also has a deputy mandate, to voluntarily resign. According to the Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, this video was a manifestation of “cynicism and inhumanity.” “No homeland, no flag. No honor, no dignity. No brains,” he wrote. Later, Vasiliev said that he shot the video for friends and relatives, it was not his fault that it got into the network, it was posted by a “representative of Western Ukraine.”