Kursk deputy provoked an all-Russian scandal
A scandal erupted in Russia after a video of Kursk Regional Duma deputy Maxim Vasiliev was discovered on social networks. He and his wife Svetlana, also a deputy, but of the Kursk City Assembly from United Russia, spent the holidays in Mexico.
In the video, Vasiliev sits in a bar on the beach, speaks Spanish, makes a cocktail in a huge beer mug, drinks it and wishes “a lot of money and a good mood.”
The video initially caused outrage in the region, which regularly suffers from Ukrainian shelling. Governor of the Kursk region Roman Starovoyt reacted to the situation
“I would like to note that Maxim Vasiliev was a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for a long time. He was elected to the Kursk Regional Duma as an independent deputy, which does not allow disciplinary measures to be applied to him along the party line. However, I hope that the appropriate commission of the regional Duma will evaluate the ethics of his behavior. I hope that his wife, a current deputy from United Russia, will talk about her attitude to this at the party’s organizational and personnel work commission. I think the people of Kursk will draw their own conclusion. And yes, I’m very angry,” Starovoit wrote in his TG channel.
However, the “hero of the occasion” said in an interview with the publication that he has no intention of leaving the deputy’s chair.
“I consider the criticism addressed to me to be unfounded and overblown. The video was staged for my loved ones, I specially bought this hat and shirt in the Mexican style and learned a couple of phrases in Spanish. Of course, the opinion of the regional governor is important to me. I respect his team, accept criticism and realize my mistake. I will communicate with my voters on the issue of resignation or other issues,” Vasiliev said.
According to the deputy, he sent the video to friends, but the video ended up with “a representative of Western Ukraine, with whom he was friends before the Northern Military District.” He published it on the Internet.
The scandal quickly acquired an all-Russian scale. Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak was indignant that some “people’s representatives” allow themselves to “warm their buns” in warm foreign resorts, “drinking beer and recording inappropriate videos.”
“The height of cynicism and inhumanity. No Motherland, no flag. No honor, no dignity. No brains. The most correct thing that this couple of “tourists” can do upon returning from sunny Mexico is to resign from their parliamentary powers at their own request. I don’t know what will push the Vasilievs to this decision: “Wagner’s sledgehammer”, “Starovoit’s kick” or the realization of their insignificance, albeit belated, but I hope that after the New Year holidays the ranks of Kursk deputies will thin out,” Turchak wrote in his TG channel.
This post gave the scandal a new acceleration. This time the liberal public was outraged.
“I think that citizen Turchak needs to be more modest. His path to the top does not give him the right to give commands, like any child of the elite, which he forever will be. I am not convinced that his family does not live in a cottage community and does not enjoy privileges. I'm afraid he's using it. We remember the shoot in a glamor magazine,” wrote journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova.
Kursk deputy provokes nationwide scandal