Krasnodar Governor Alexander Tkachyov was bombarded with questions about illegal dacha-building, the Krymsk flooding disaster and links to organized crime in an online question-and-answer session Thursday.
Tkachyov conducted the session from his Twitter account with a promise to answer any question, and he warned that offensive or rude tweets would be banned.
The hash tag #вопюосТкачеву, or question for Tkachyov, was soon trending on Twitter with probing and highly uncomfortable questions for the governor.
"Why do you have such a big dacha, and why is there such a big and illegal wall around it?" asked opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, referring to a controversial building on the Black Sea coast that environmentalists say is illegal.
Others brought up the case of Suren Gazaryan, an environmentalist arrested while investigating the controversial building.
It was the start of an avalanche of accusatory questions, including "Which offshore [account] is best to store a very large amount of money?" and "How much [money] do you need from the people of Krymsk to resign?"
Tkachyov preferred to concentrate on questions about governance or regional issues, like the one from a local resident who demanded to know when a road would be built to a new neighborhood in Krasnodar. Another participant wanted action on stray dogs.
Tkachyov also promised "modern methods" for fighting African swine flu, which has struck pig farms in the region.
"Don't worry. There will be lard," he said.
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