Sardana Avksentyeva
Sardana Vladimirovna Avksentyeva (née Gogoleva, , , born 1970) is a Russian politician, who served as the mayor of Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) from 2018 to 2021. Early life, beginning of career Sardana Avksentyeva was born on 2 July 1970 in Churapcha, 177 km east of Yakutsk. She graduated from the Faculty of History and Law of the M. K. Ammosov Yakutsk State University (modern North-Eastern Federal University) in 1993 as history teacher, and the Far Eastern Academy of Public Administration in 1998 with a degree in State and Municipal Administration. In 1993–96 she worked as a specialist in the department for youth affairs, physical culture and sports of Yakutsk City Administration, becoming head of a department of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Tourism, Physical Culture and Sports of Yakutia in 1996. From 1998 to 2000 Avksentyeva worked as the head of the department of organizational and personnel work at the Sakha National Broadcasting Company. In 2000, she was appointed assistant to the deputy of the State Duma Vitaly Basygysov. From 2004 to 2007, she worked as Deputy General Director of OJSC Tuymaada Diamond. From 2007 to 2012, she worked as chief of staff of Yakutsk City Administration and deputy for the mayor Yury Zabolev from the United Russia party. Avksentyeva previously headed Zabolev's election headquarters. Since 2012 she was director of the production and commercial complex "Aerotorgservice" of Yakutsk Airport. 2018 Mayoral election In September 2018, she was elected the mayor of Yakutsk from the minor "Party of Russia's Rebirth", while remaining non-partisan. She won with 39.98%, ahead of Alexander Savvinov of the United Russia party, who received 31.70% of the vote. Sardana Avksentyeva became the first woman to assume the post of mayor of Yakutsk. In an interview for Meduza, Avksentyeva stated that she decided to try her hand at the suggestion of the Rodina nominee Vladimir Fyodorov, who was forced to withdraw his candidacy. The main sponsor of Avksentyeva's campaign was the Utum group of companies and its founder Vasily Gogolev, who had previously supported Fydorov. Mayoralty In the first year of her tenure, in order to save budgetary funds, Avksentyeva put up the official cars of administration employees for auction, cut the costs of holidays and other events, external and public relations, the reception of delegations. Subsequently, the mayor's office was unable to sell its off-road vehicles. Instead of a portrait of Vladimir Putin, common for Russian local authorities' offices, Avksentyeva placed a photograph of people celebrating the Yakut summer holiday Yhyakh in her office. In March 2020, the incident with the mass killing of animals with rabies at the animal transfer station in Yakutsk sparked outrage among animal rights activists. Avksentyeva proposed to the deputies of the Yakutsk City Duma to introduce a tax on pet owners and to use the collected funds for the capture and sterilization of stray animals. She cited as an example the European countries, where "animals are treated as luxury goods, and there is corresponding