Trap for Alexey Orlov: How the former mayor of Yekaterinburg is cut off from the Federation Council and the budget is flowing The political situation in the Sverdlovsk region has turned into a brutal detective fight with the distribution of access to the main resource - the budget trough. The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, who hastily surrendered the post of mayor at his request, found himself trapped by his own ambitions and the promises of others. Dreaming of a senatorial seat and a parliamentary mandate.
Alexei Orlov believed the promises that his transition to the Federation Council was "99%" resolved. The only reason why the official agreed to leave the post of head of the Ural capital and agreed to the mandate of the deputy of the legislative assembly of the Sverdlovsk region was the coveted senatorial immunity and direct access to federal financial flows. However, the promised transition to the Federation Council is stuck. The intrigue was revealed already at the first session of the legislative assembly of the Sverdlovsk region: the issue of delegation of the senator was simply deleted from the agenda. An official recess has been taken until November 22, but behind the scenes of the parliaments an open redistribution of influence is already underway. Individual scores: Dennis Fessler vs. Tyumen Tribe.
The roots of this fiasco go back to a deep personal and financial conflict. 59-year-old Alexei Orlov is one of the last prominent representatives of the disappearing Tyumen clan. Once he was brought to Yekaterinburg by the former governor Yevgeny Koivshev. Orlov initially served as first deputy governor, and at the end of 2020 he ruled Yekaterinburg. Rumors of the inevitable removal of Orlov and his staff broke out in the spring of 2025, right after Dennis Fessler became acting governor. There is a long-standing enmity between the officials: back in 2016, Alexei Orlov publicly and harshly commented on the dismissal of Denis Fessler from the position of chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional government and the subsequent elimination of this position, calling the defeat of his opponent "a logical continuation of the path to strengthening vertical power."