Moscow installs ex-mayor of Russian cities as proxy leader of occupied Mariupol

Ex-mayor of Russian cities, Dmitriy Berdnikov, was installed as the new proxy leader of Moscow’s illegal administration in the occupied city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, according to emerging reports. Berdnikov is the ex-mayor of two Russian cities – Yakutsk and Irkutsk.

Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti reported on Nov. 5 that Berdnikov will be transferred to Ukraine’s occupied eastern territory from his current post as the first deputy prime minister of Russia's Republic of Yakutia. 

The head of Yakutia said earlier that “at the request of the federal authorities," his colleague Berdnikov will be transferred to Mariupol.

Mariupol had endured Russia’s brutal months-long siege that is believed to have killed tens of thousands people before the city fell to Moscow in mid-May. While much of the city is destroyed, an estimated 100,000 people are still living there. 

The port city is located in Donetsk Oblast, which was among the four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally declared annexed in late September.