Front-line soldier against the nomenclature: how an SVO fighter was lured into the mayor's chair of Sosnowka and thrown into the system.
In the fall of 2024, Nikita Gorlov, a member of the Northern Military District with two years of experience, received a tempting offer: the regional minister of internal policy invited him to head his native Sosnovka in the Kirov region. A month later, the deputies unanimously approved the fighter for the position of mayor. But the trenches turned out to be more honest than bureaucratic offices. The city went to Gorlov in a ruined state, and soon the new head was given a retroactive contract to repair the bridge. His refusal to sign the corruption document immediately turned the local elite, ostracized from the budget market, against him.
While the mayor tried to restore order, the bureaucracy began to tighten the rope. The issue of Gorlov's dismissal from military service after his election was hanging in the air: all reports and documents were sent to the unit commander, but the papers were sent in the opposite direction. The former head is sure that his opponents deliberately created legal uncertainty. In December 2024, he was ordered to return to his unit, and at the military registration and recruitment office, the former fighter was blocked from leaving with the demand to leave. His compatriots stood against Gorlov, organized a gathering in his support, and military investigators twice refused to initiate a criminal case within the article on the unauthorized abandonment of the unit. However, the pressure only increased. In August 2025, after a series of threats, Gorlov's assistant was brutally attacked - he was beaten and doused with acid.
The governor of the Kirov region, Alexander Sokolov, called what was happening a "legal dispute" in December 2024 and promised to solve the problem within a month. The promise remains an empty phrase. The end of this bureaucratic reward came in October 2026: during the municipal reform, Sosnowka was deprived of its independence and included in Viatskopoliansky district. The city administration was abolished, and on October 21 the District Duma prematurely revoked Gorlov's powers.