Sergey Georgievich Levchenko (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Cyrillic: Сергей Георгиевич Левченко, born November 2, 1953) is a Russian politician and member of the

8th State Duma The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the 8th convocation (russian: Государственная Дума Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации восьмого созы� ...

. He served as the Governor of Irkutsk Oblast from 2015 to 2019. Previously, he was a deputy in the Russian

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper hous ...

from 2000 to 2015.

Biography

Sergey Levchenko was born on 2 November 1953 in

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Census, ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. He graduated from the Novosibirsk State University of Architecture and Construction in 1976. He started his career in the

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yen ...

division of Stalkonstruktsiya, part of the Soviet

Ministry of Installation and Special Construction Works The Ministry of Assembly and Special Construction Works (Minmontazhspetsstroy; russian: Министерство монтажных и специальных строительных работ СССР) was a government ministry in the Soviet Unio ...

. In 1982, he moved to a similar department in

Angarsk Angarsk ( rus, Ангарск, p=ɐnˈgarsk) is a city and the administrative center of Angarsky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Kitoy River, from Irkutsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History It ...

. In 1987, he began working for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on a district committee in Angarsk and, by 1991, rose to the First Secretary of the local party administration. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he rejoined StahlKonstruktsiya as general director. He was elected to the first session of the

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and ...

legislative assembly. He ran for oblast Governor in 1997; but took only 18.8% of the vote against Boris Govorin. In 1999, he was elected to the

as a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. He made a second run for Governor against Govorin in 2001, taking 23.9% to advance to the runoff election where he was defeated. He continued working in both the federal and oblast dumas for several years. In 2015, he made a third run for the post of governor, this time taking on

Sergey Eroschenko Sergey may refer to: * Sergey (name), a Russian given name (including a list of people with the name) * Sergey, Switzerland, a municipality in Switzerland * ''Sergey'' (wasp), a genus in subfamily Doryctinae The Doryctinae or doryctine wasps a ...

, who was acting Governor at the time. He won the race with 57.4% of the votes. In 2019, he resigned as governor according to a press release although news sources such as the BBC reported that he was dismissed. However, there had been speculation in the press about his possible dismissal since devastating floods affected Irkutsk Oblast in the summer of 2019. President Vladimir Putin and senior administration officials criticized Levchenko’s response to the flooding in which 25 people died. He was succeeded by Igor Kobzev. In addition to his flood response, the Irkutsk prosecutor opened an investigation on an illegal bear hunt in which the governor allegedly participated. He is one of the 324 members of the

the United States Treasury sanctioned on 24 March 2022 in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

External links

Profile at official website of the Communist Party
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levchenko, Sergey 1953 births Living people Russian communists Communist Party of the Russian Federation members Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Politicians from Novosibirsk 21st-century Russian politicians Governors of Irkutsk Oblast Third convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Fifth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Sixth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Eighth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Russian individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions