The sudden popularity of a Russian mayor who lives modestly

THE TYPICAL Russian big-city mayor exhibits several traits. He is male and middle-aged. He lives more opulently than his neighbours. He represents the ruling United Russia party. And he won his post not at the ballot box, but by appointment.

Sardana Avksentieva, the mayor of Yakutsk, the regional capital of Russia’s far eastern republic of Sakha, cuts a different image. She defeated a United Russia candidate in an insurgent campaign during regional elections last autumn. When billboard owners refused to run her campaign ads, she hired a fleet of trucks, plastered them with her likeness, and parked them across town. She pitched herself as “The People’s Mayor”, and voters rewarded her. Ms Avksentieva’s popularity hints at the kind of leadership voters might prefer, if they had a real choice. “I’m a harbinger,” she sighs, “though I don’t want to be.”

Her message has focused on providing services and on greater transparency—an oddity in a country where fewer than a tenth of all regional capitals elect their mayors directly. “People should understand and feel that their opinion means something, and that their demands can be fulfilled,” she says. “Nothing should be decided behind closed doors, no decisions should be adopted by a small cabal of people.” She live-streams city planning meetings. She argues that the capital of a...