Maxim Wassiljew, a Russian regional politician, is having a good time with cocktails and shrimps over New Year’s Eve in Mexico. However, his New Year’s wishes from a beach bar are not particularly well received at home. There are now calls for resignation.
The New Year’s greetings from a regional politician from the Kursk border region of Russia who is celebrating in Mexico have provoked anger in Russia in view of the war in Ukraine. “Like thousands of my compatriots, I am indignant at the video greeting sent from Mexico by the Kursk parliamentarian Maxim Vasilyev,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoit wrote on his Telegram channel. He called the politician’s luxury vacation in times of war “unethical”.
In the video from a beach bar, Vasilyev wished “a lot of money and a good mood” while sipping an alcoholic cocktail and shrimp. Meanwhile, the Kursk region bordering Ukraine is increasingly feeling the effects of Russia’s war of aggression against the neighboring country. Thousands of people from Kursk are at the front, and the deaths of around 100 have already been officially confirmed. Places close to the border are regularly under fire, and in December Kursk airfield was attacked by drones.
In view of this, demands for Vasilyev’s resignation were raised in Russia. “I don’t know what prompted the Vasilyevs to make such a decision,” wrote Andrei Turchak, general secretary of the Kremlin party United Russia. “But I hope that the ranks of the Kursk deputies will thin out after the New Year holidays.”
Wassiljew, who sat for the communists in the state parliament for a long time, is non-party. His wife, on the other hand, belongs to the “United Russia” faction. Vasilyev has shown himself to be an active supporter of the war against Ukraine in the past. He called the fuss about his New Year’s greeting exaggerated. He only sent the greeting to friends, but a former acquaintance from western Ukraine “whom I was friends with before the special military operation” spread the video online, the deputy said.
