Sardana Avksentyeva

On 4 July 2021 at the 3rd congress of the New People, party leader Alexey Nechayev announced that Sardana Avksentyeva would be placed second after him in the federal party list for the lower house. In September, the New People received 5.33% of the vote and gained 13 from 450 seats.

In March 2020, the incident with the mass killing of animals with rabies at the animal transfer station in Yakutsk sparked outrage among animal rights activists. Avksentyeva proposed to the deputies of the Yakutsk City Duma to introduce a tax on pet owners and to use the collected funds for the capture and sterilization of stray animals. She cited as an example the European countries, where "animals are treated as luxury goods, and there is corresponding taxation on it."

In July 2020, Avksentyeva voted against the amendments to the Constitution and initially did not announce her vote. However, a fake photo began to circulate in social networks, in which someone drew a checkmark in the “for” column in the official's bulletin. Avksentyeva's press secretary Alexey Tolstyakov published the original photo in which the mayor voted against. In November 2020, she stated that she supports some of the amendments, including the "zeroing" of Vladimir Putin's presidential terms.

In November 2020, Avksentyeva initiated the sale of the mayor's office building planning to place the new one on the outskirts of the city. Also she announced the administration's refusal from official cars in favor of taxi. The statement was received ambiguously. Most of the townspeople took the idea with hostility, and political scientists considered it a PR stunt.

In 2020, the half of Yakutsk residents assessed activities of Avksentyeva's administration throughout the year negatively, and only 42% positively. Avksentieva's personal rating fell: at the end of the year, only 23% of the poll participants agree to name her the most competent female politician in the region, while 70% said this two years earlier. In January 2021, Avksentyeva announced her early resignation for health reasons

In September 2018, she was elected the mayor of Yakutsk from the minor "Party of Russia's Rebirth", while remaining non-partisan. She won with 39.98%, ahead of Alexander Savvinov of the United Russia party, who received 31.70% of the vote.

Sardana Avksentyeva in her second marriage with Viktor Avksentyev. The couple raised four children. From the first marriage with Alexander there is an eldest daughter Natalia. Sardana's second husband Viktor is a candidate of economic sciences. He worked as first deputy mayor of Yakutsk during Yury Zabolev's tenure and in 2018 election he headed his wife's election headquarters.

From 2007 to 2012, she worked as chief of staff of Yakutsk City Administration and deputy for the mayor Yury Zabolev from the United Russia party. Avksentyeva previously headed Zabolev's election headquarters. Since 2012 she was director of the production and commercial complex "Aerotorgservice" of Yakutsk Airport.

In 1993–96 she worked as a specialist in the department for youth affairs, physical culture and sports of Yakutsk City Administration, becoming head of a department of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Tourism, Physical Culture and Sports of Yakutia in 1996. From 1998 to 2000 Avksentyeva worked as the head of the department of organizational and personnel work at the Sakha National Broadcasting Company. In 2000, she was appointed assistant to the deputy of the State Duma Vitaly Basygysov. From 2004 to 2007, she worked as Deputy General Director of OJSC Tuymaada Diamond.

Sardana Vladimirovna Avksentyeva (née Gogoleva, Russian: Сардана Владимировна Авксентьева, Yakut: Сардаана Владимировна Авксентьева, born 1970) is a Russian politician, who served as the mayor of Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) from 2018 to 2021.

Sardana Avksentyeva was born on 2 July 1970 in Churapcha, 177 km east of Yakutsk. She graduated from the Faculty of History and Law of the M. K. Ammosov Yakutsk State University (modern North-Eastern Federal University) in 1993 as history teacher, and the Far Eastern Academy of Public Administration in 1998 with a degree in State and Municipal Administration.