How Graffiti Made Russian Officials Do Their Job

Street artists have painted the roads of Yekaterinburg with the caricatures of municipal and region leaders. They were made in such ways that the road pits, potholes and other irregularities became the part of the drawings.

Alexander Yakob – “All streets will be repaired”

Head of Yekaterinburg administration, Alexander Yakob

Each caricature is accompanied by the quote from official’s speech.

Yevgenij Kuyvashev – “Reconstruction of roads is our main task”

Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Yevgenij Kuyvashev

It should be noted that Yekaterinburg has constantly been criticized for the quality of roads. In this aspect the fourth-largest Russia’s city is behind other Russian cities-”millionaires” [ed: cities with the population over million people], not to mention the European and Asian cities.

In the early days of his leadership the governor Yevgenij Kuyvashev used to name the state of the roads in Yekaterinburg as one of his priorities.

Yevgenij Porunov – “Repair of all potholes will be finished by April 2012″

Mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgenij Porunov

Reaction of city officials

Yesterday the news about graffiti became the most discussed topic in the region’s news sites; the information about street art was published in all Yekaterinburg federal newspapers.

But in the administration of Yekaterinburg they pretend that cartoon images have nothing to do with them.

“Why did you decide that it was the head of the city or region? These are just graphic elements, vaguely reminiscent of the representatives of the Yekaterinburg government” – said the spokesman of city administration, Denis Sukhorukov.

He stressed that painting of the graffiti wasn’t approved by authorities, which is “not quite right”.

“Probably in the near future the municipal services will clean the roads and remove the drawings because for them this is just the contamination of the urban area.“