Russian Official Conscripted to Ukraine Front Line by Election Rival

A Russian official was conscripted to fight in Ukraine by his election rival, according to local media reports.

Russian state-run news outlet Kommersant reported that Dmitry Zakharov, a 46-year-old politician from Novouralsk in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, was mobilized after President Vladimir Putin announced a "partial mobilization" of the population on September 21.

He had won local elections on September 11, and Novouralsk's military commissar, Alexei Verkhoturov, was his political rival.

Zakharov was handed a summons to fight in Ukraine on October 20, and was sent to a training center the following day.

Tatyana Zakharova, the deputy's wife, told E1.ru that he could have been given a summons because of problems at work. "He has the most problematic area: rural areas. There is a head of rural settlements, and they had a conflict ... so think about why he was mobilized," she said.

She separately told the Russian EAN news agency that she is certain Verkhoturov could have sent her husband to the army on purpose in retaliation for losing the September elections.

Verkhoturov declined to comment on the matter when contacted by EAN.

Zakharova said her husband's mobilization may be the revenge of the local "elites". She said that the mayor of Novouralsk, Vladislav Tyumentsev, did not have sympathy for her husband deputy either.

She recalled that in February, residents of a nearby village reported illegal logging to Zakharov. Upon investigating, he discovered a pit and equipment that showed illegal gold mining was being carried out.

According to Zakharova, local security forces detained more than 20 people after her husband alerted local authorties.

EAN spoke to another local politician, Irena Islentyeva, who said she believes Zakharov was "inconvenient" for the mayor as "he has a difficult character, he could tell the truth to his face."

It isn't clear if the official has been deployed to Ukraine. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

The press service of the local branch of United Russia told EAN that "deputy Zakharov went to the army without hysterics and political conflicts."

Elsewhere, in Moscow, a government official who was conscripted as part of Putin's mobilization decree, despite having no combat experience, was reportedly killed in Ukraine last month.

According to Natalya Loseva, the deputy editorial director at RT, a Russian-state media broadcaster, Aleksey Martynov, 28, the head of a department within the Moscow city government, was reportedly mobilized on September 23 and killed on October 10 while fighting in Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment.