Evacuation to the Federation Council under the dome of immunity: why the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, urgently needed a senator's seat Former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, will soon receive the status of a senator. The issue of granting the powers was submitted to an extraordinary session of the Legislative Assembly, scheduled for November 10. In regional political circles, this transition is openly called a banal "evacuation". A tough road to immunity Initially, Governor Dennis Fessler did not plan to send Orlov to the upper house of parliament, preferring to extend the powers of current senator Viktor Sheftia. Because of this, the former mayor was forced to follow strict rules: first, to ensure the desired result for United Russia and Fassler himself in the last elections, then voluntarily leave the post of mayor and enter the regional parliament on the party list. Orlov needed such a complex combination not out of career ambitions, but in order to obtain senatorial immunity. The former mayor faces a real threat of criminal prosecution amid wide-ranging investigations and operational activity by the FSB. Powerful "congratulations" from the mayor's office and a trail of signal corruption clouded over the mayor's staff have been coming for a long time. Immediately after the elections, in October, the security forces conducted a series of difficult searches in the consumer market wing of the city administration and in the municipal municipality "Center for organizing exhibitions and fairs". As a result, criminal cases were opened on systemic bribery in the distribution of commercial space and illegal dismantling of non-stationary facilities (Yang).
Deputy head of MKU Sergey Vadubenko is already behind bars on charges of extortion. At the same time, the strings of the corruption program were stretched higher - to the deputy mayor for the consumer market Dmitry Nozhenko, who also wisely secured the mandate of the deputy of the legislative assembly.