A cat named Barsik is the furry favorite of voters in a Siberian city fed up with corrupt politicians. The 18-month old Scottish fold cat has beat out all of her human rivals in an unofficial poll run by a popular social media page, Altai Online.
Barnaul, a city of 700,000 located near the Altai mountains, has been rocked by a series of high-profile corruption cases, according to The Guardian. Much like the Belgian Tweeters who posted humorous cat photos to cope with the lockdown in Brussels, the residents of Barnaul have found an outlet for their frustration by championing Barsik, who is the new media darling of Siberia.
Barsik is making appearances in online videos and her image is plastered on a billboard overlooking a major highway in Barnaul. The story has been reported by European and American media, including CNN and Time. Residents of the Siberian City of Barnaul are so disgusted with nepotism and politics as usual that 91 percent voted for Barsik against six human candidates, CNN reported.
Time called Barsik “something of a political symbol.” The media is having fun with this story as well. “Tired of the dog-eat-dog politics in their Russian city, the residents of Barnaul say they want a cat to be their next mayor,” quipped abcnews.go.com. A GNews Report video called her “The candidate to clean-up paw-litics.”
