Vyacheslav Markhayev

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Markhayev (Вячесла́в Миха́йлович Марха́ев; born 1 June 1955, Sharaldai, Bokhansky District, Irkutsk Oblast ) is a Russian politician who is currently a member of parliament, a deputy of the State Duma since 2021, as he already served a member of the State Duma elected in 2011.

He had served as the Senator from Irkutsk Oblast on executive authority from 2015 to 2020. He was the First Secretary of the Buryat Communist Party.

Biography
Born in the family of a school teacher in village  Sharaldai. In 1977 he graduated from the Buryat State University.

From 1980 to 2007 he worked in the internal affairs bodies. Founder and first commander of the Buryat riot police. He began his career in Ministry of Internal Affairs with the district police officer and was promoted to deputy minister of  Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2007, with the rank of colonel, he retired from service.

In December 2007, Markhayev became the deputy of the People's Khural of the Republic of Buryatia, the head of the Communist Party faction.

During the 2011 Russian legislative election he received a deputy mandate for the 6th State Duma of the Federal Assembly of Russia on the CPRF list. Following the electoral victory of fellow communist Sergey Levchenko for governor of Irkutsk Oblast in September 2015, Levchenko announced his intention to nominate Markhayev to the Federation Council.

He officially resigned form the State Duma on 16 October 2015, two weeks after his appointment to the Senate.

In 2017, Markhaev was nominated as one of the candidates for the head of Buryatia by Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but he could not overcome the municipal filter.

In 2019 he publicly condemned the heavy-handed police response to protests surrounding the 2019 Moscow City Duma election.

On 11 March 2020 he was the only member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation who voted against the amendments to the Russian Constitution. He spoke out against the Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, although his criticisms only refer to Russia's military campaign outside of Donbass, while he fully supports the narrative that Ukraine is governed by "neo-Nazis".

Sanctions
Markhayev was one of the 324 members of the State Duma the United States Treasury sanctioned on 24 March 2022 in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Markhayev was also sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War.