Last month, Nikolai Merkushkin saw off his 65th birthday in style. Local newspapers printed illustrated special editions to mark the governor of Samara’s birthday, and television stations broadcast a documentary film dedicated to the region’s leading man, In the epoch’s lens.
Merkushkin’s office is no small role. Samara is the sixth-largest city in Russia, straddling the river Volga between Astrakhan and Volgograd. Together with the neighbouring cities of Syzran and Tolyatti, it forms a industrial and economic centre with a population of over three million.
While journalists and public officials praise Merkushkin, city residents say that Merkushkin’s rule hasn’t done much for Samara. Instead, under the banner of United Russia, Merkushkin has created a mini-state of his own — with its own laws.
Censorship and suppression of local dissent are rife here
