Sergei Furgal

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Furgal was involved in the scrap metal trade. In 2005, he became the head of the Khabarovsk branch of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). In 2007, he became a State Duma member. In September 2018, he won the governor's election in Khabarovsk Krai in a protest vote, beating the incumbent head of the region, Viacheslav Shport, by more than 40 percentage points, despite having hardly campaigned at all. During his short governorship, Furgal took a number of steps to combat official privilege: he cut his own salary, discarded government-owned luxury goods, reduced staffing and flight expenses, and cut supplementary retirement benefits for officials and deputies. In addition, the governor submitted a bill to the regional legislature on the return of direct elections of district heads — the law was passed. Under him, the regional parliament passed several laws limiting the powers of the governor.
On 9 July 2020, Furgal was detained and taken to Moscow, where the next day the court ruled to send him to custody on the charges of organising murders and an assassination attempt that took place in 2004. On 20 July, President Putin stripped him of his powers due to loss of trust.
In November 2021, Furgal was charged in a new case — the embezzlement of funds from the Amurstal plant.
On 10 February 2023, Furgal was sentenced to 22 years in a strict-regime penal colony.

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