‘After the mayor of Irkutsk, only God speaks’

Video footage from a mid-March meeting of city officials in Irkutsk is causing a stir online, thanks to a particularly obnoxious comment by Mayor Dmitry Berdnikov, who refused to let a senior police colonel add a last-minute item to the agenda.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich, did you want something?” the mayor asked, when he saw the police colonel motion for his attention.

“I would like to make a few additions, to include on the agenda. Just two minutes,” the police colonel said.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich, you're forgetting I already told you that, after the mayor, only God speaks. That's it. The meeting is over. You didn't speak in time, Comrade Colonel, so please approach me separately,” Berdnikov responded.

According to the local news website Novyi Irkutsk, Mayor Berdnikov is infamous for belittling his subordinates, though his public persona is that of a soft-spoken, educated man. Berdnikov was elected mayor in March 2015. He is the son of Irkutsk's former head prosecutor, Albina Kovaleva, who now serves as an advisor to Russia's attorney general.