Sverdlovsk Region does not need to buy automobiles like the one purchased for Governor Alexander Misharin, with the back-rub-in-the-back-seat option. We have other, more pressing social needs to meet, for example, offer housing to orphans,’ says the regional public prosecution authorities representative Maria Protasova.

Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court Justice Maria Toporova refused to sustain the claim laid against the region’s Governor; the case had to do with the purchase of a premium class automobile for him. The prosecution authorities insisted that the purchase of this Mercedes for Sverdlovsk Region Government Automobile Park be declared illegitimate. Stern, Sverdlovsk Region Government Automobile Park, and the region’s State Purchase Department were the defendants in the case.

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service supported the prosecution authorities and declared that the Governor needs a car to get from one destination to another, and this can be done by any vehicle, not necessarily the one that costs 7.9m RUR.