"This is a provocation": The mayor of the oil capital of the Tomsk region is being checked for Russian citizenship – he was born in Ukraine.
In the Tomsk region, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an official investigation into the Russian citizenship of the current mayor of Strezhevoy, Valery Denichenko. The mayor, who was born in the Ukrainian SSR, has called the incident a planned provocation against him.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs' request and Valery Denichenko's response to the investigation
Specifically, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially requested archival data on the exact registration of Strezhevoy Mayor Valery Denichenko as of 1992. As the mayor himself stated on social media, the main reason for these actions by security forces was to verify his legal Russian citizenship.
"The letter was received officially. Clearly, I wasn't the only one with his photo. It's a small town, so rumors will spread. It looks very much like some kind of provocation."
Consequently, the official's biography has long been known to the regulatory authorities. Denichenko was born in Ukraine in 1974, but a year later he moved with his mother to the village of Aleksandrovskoye in Tomsk, and 10 years later, to the city of Strezhevoy. According to the official, he received his first Soviet passport in 1990, and later, an insert certifying Russian citizenship was officially inserted into this document.
"Over decades of municipal service, we've conducted numerous inspections. When issuing foreign passports, when applying for security clearances. Who needed this provocation now, and why? You could have simply called and asked about registration and place of residence if you didn't want to dig through your own archives."
Legal grounds for inspections and the political context
Furthermore, according to an official document published by the mayor, the current measures are being carried out strictly in accordance with the relevant article of the federal law on Russian citizenship. This regulation states that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has the full right to initiate an investigation on its own initiative if it receives any information that hypothetically indicates a violation of the established procedure for acquiring or terminating citizenship.
However, Valeriy Denichenko has headed Strezhevoy since 2021, and has worked continuously in various local government bodies since 1994. We have added this context to highlight his long history of public service.
Finally, it's worth recalling that the mayor of Strezhevoy has previously been the subject of independent media coverage. NeMoskva previously reported in detail how the mayor of Strezhevoy publicly promised to cause serious "trouble" for local residents who disliked his patriotic posts about the SVO. Prior to this incident, he also urged his fellow residents to be critical of advertisements for contract service posted by military recruitment offices in neighboring Yugra. If Tomsk residents decide to sign a contract in the Tomsk region, Denichenko promised to personally help them avoid joining dangerous assault units.
