September 19, 2019: Taganrog City Council elections were held in Taganrog on September 8, 2019. Twenty-five deputies have been elected to the new City Council. The local duma of the 7th convocation is now comprised of 13 council members representing the political party "United Russia" (Yedinaya Rossiya), 5 members of "Just Russia" (Spravedlivaya Rossiya), 4 deputies representing the Communist Party of Russia (KPRF) and 3 unaffiliated candidates.


Yesterday night, September 18, 2019 members of the newly elected City Council gathered for their first special session, which was chaired by the oldest deputy present - Mr. Yuri Stefanov (70, "United Russia"). Ms. Inna Titarenko was re-elected Taganrog City Council President and City Executive, while Mr. Andrey Lisitsky was re-endorsed Taganrog City Manager for another five-year term.

"We must strive to get the best possible results and not just for the process, staying above personal and partisan interests in order to move the city forward", - highlighted City Executive - "There must be close interaction between Taganrog Local Government, Taganrog City Council and Rostov Oblast Legislative Assembly to solve Taganrog's problems and not only at the level of regional and local governments. The key priority for the new City Council is to establish constructive relations between local duma's standing committees and special-purpose committees at regional assembly." According to Inna Titarenko, municipal budget, which is central to urban challenges in utilities sector and social affairs, improvement of the municipal governance system and active involvement of civil society will be priority areas of work.


The newly appointed Taganrog City Manager Andrey Lisitsky thanked the members of the City Council for their confidence and trust: "There are many challenges that can only be met by us all together. Regardless of the outcome of the voting and irrespective of party affiliations, the local government is ready to cooperate with all members of the new City Council". He concluded by thanking the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of Rostov Oblast Alexander Ishenko for the regional government's support and expressed the hope that this support would be continued and possibly expanded.