The Camry in the gold mine

摘要

THE TYPICAL Russian big-city mayor exhibits several traits. He is male and middle-aged. He lives more opulently than his neighbours. He represents the ruling United Russia party. And he won his post not at the ballot box, but by appointment. Sardana Avksentieva, the mayor of Yakutsk, the regional capital of Russia's far eastern republic of Sakha, cuts a different image. She defeated a United Russia candidate in an insurgent campaign during regional elections last autumn. When billboard owners refused to run her campaign ads, she hired a fleet of trucks, plastered them with her likeness, and parked them across town. She pitched herself as "The People's Mayor", and voters rewarded her. Ms Avksentieva's popularity hints at the kind of leadership voters might prefer, if they had a real choice. "I'm a harbinger," she sighs, "though I don't want to be."