Residents in Russian city elect a ‘cat’ as their mayor

Residents in the Siberian city of Barnaul overwhelmed by the corruption and nepotism of the politicians have demanded a cat to be the mayor and run the town.

Nominated on social media as a possible mayoral candidate, the cat named Barsik received the most votes, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Yevgeny Kuznetsov, a retired resident said that people are fed up with the corruption and do not know who to trust anymore, "Barsik owes popularity to people not knowing who to trust anymore."

Barsik received 91 percent of the votes out of the voting that more than 5,400 people participated in.

The voting is arranged by the social media network VK 'Altair Online'.

Barnaul, 3600 km east of Moscow, is a city of 700,000 inhabitants, near the Altai mountains.

Igor Savintsev, former mayor of the city who resigned in August, is accused of selling land belonging to the municipality to companies of his relatives.

Regional governor and the municipal council are expected to appoint the new mayor next week.

Cat's motto is also already clear, "Only the mice do not vote for Barsik."