In Kirov Oblast, the mayor—a “veteran of the special military operation”—who fought...

In Kirov Oblast, the mayor—a “veteran of the special military operation”—who fought corruption in government has been dismissed. The Kremlin called the appointment “the most unsuccessful”

Nikita Gorelov, a graduate of the Time of Heroes personnel programme and participant in the war in Ukraine, has been dismissed from his post as head of Sosnovka in Kirov Oblast. He became widely known after he began looking into corruption in the settlement and was then nearly sent back to the front.

Gorelov reported his dismissal on his Telegram channel. According to him, the day before, deputies of the council of the Vyatskopolyansky District of Kirov Oblast (Sosnovka is administratively part of it) decided, under the “Miscellaneous” section, to remove the heads of rural settlements from office, including him.

Formally, the deputies acquired this option on 20 September, after the election of the district council. The fact is that back in November 2025, the legislative assembly of Kirov Oblast, like those of many Russian regions, abolished all municipal districts and transformed them into municipal okrugs. From that point, Sosnovka, as a separate settlement together with the local administration headed by Gorelov, was abolished.

According to Gorelov, Viktoria Voytsekhovskaya, elected head of the district at the same meeting, “said outright” that she was sending the veteran “out into the world.” Gorelov calls himself the first graduate of the Time of Heroes programme to be forcibly dismissed.

According to Gorelov, support from the regional authorities was completely absent, and he and other war participants were “used.”

“‎Essentially, we are used like toy soldiers for hype and then written off. I believe the system itself must make a choice and decide what matters more to it: honest work to cleanse it of the rust of banditry and corruption (even if it is unpleasant and inconvenient), or supporting the rust, the failure of all mechanisms, and collapse,” Gorelov concluded.

🟪 As Verstka previously wrote, Gorelov’s story was discussed by Kremlin officials at a 2025 seminar with deputy governors for domestic policy. It was deemed by the presidential administration to be “the most unsuccessful case” of appointing a “veteran of the special military operation” to an administrative position. “This is how it should not be done,” one participant in that seminar told Verstka at the time.

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