Resistance to Moscow’s Plan to Eliminate Local Municipalities Taking Political Form

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 10 – The Kremlin’s plan to eliminate municipal governments both to save money and increase central control has angered many, especially on the periphery of the Russian Federation where such local governments are most important; and there are signs that this anger is now sparking ever more political form.

            Two occurred this week, the first in the restive Komi Republic in the Russian North (semnasem.org/news/2026/06/09/kommunisty-iniciirovali-referendum-o-sohranenii-selsovetov-v-komi) and the second in the even more troubled Khabarovsk Kray in the far east (semnasem.org/news/2026/06/09/deputaty-uvolili-glavu-habarovskogo-sela-otkazavshegosya-unichtozhat-selsovety-za-nego-vstupilos-okolo-300-zhitelej).

            In Komi, the local branch of the KPRF submitted an application to the regional parliament to allow aa referendum that would reverse the May 28 decision of that body abolishing these local governments, a move the parliament may block but one that will stir up the republic’s population as the Russian Federation heads into the Duma elections this fall.

            Meanwhile, in the Khabarovsk village of Knyze-Volkonskoye, the local council voted eight to one to dismiss the head of  the government body there after he refused to disband the municipality as Moscow has demanded. Some 300 local people had petitioned the council not to dismiss him and not to disband their government; but at its closed meeting, the deputies did both.

            While those moves were a loss to the local population, this situation highlights just how angry many people in places where municipal governments are being disbanded at the Kremlin’s order and suggests that at least some of these people will be less inclined to support pro-Moscow candidates of United Russia now than they had been in the past.