Leonid Igorevich Markelov () (born 1963) is a Russian politician and lawyer, who is the former head of the Mari El republic in Russia. He took office on January 14, 2001 and resigned from office on April 6, 2017. Markelov was later arrested under suspicion of accepting bribes. Biography Early life Markelov was born to a Russian Orthodox family living in Moscow, as the only child. His father, Igor Markelov was the chief of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, and his mother was an economist. His father died when Markelov was nine years old, leaving him solely dependent on his mother throughout most of his childhood. He was educated at the Military University of the Ministry of Defence, where he graduated with a degree in law in 1986. He was a member of the Communist Party of the USSR from 1981 to 1991, while at the same time serving in the Soviet army. He was an attorney in 1992, and entered politics in 1999. Markelov is Russian by ethnicity. He is married to Irina Konstantinova Markelova, and together they have a son and a daughter. Presidency Markelov was elected in December 2000 in one of the most contentious elections that occurred in the period between 1991 and 2005 when leaders of Russian administrative divisions were directly elected. In the first round, Markelov came slightly ahead of incumbent Vyacheslav Kislitsyn with Markelov receiving 29% and Kislitsyn receiving 25% in a field of several other candidates. In the runoff two weeks later, Markelov was elected with 59% of the vote. In 1996, Markelov had been defeated by Kislitsyn, receiving 38% of the vote. Markelov was elected to a second 4-year term in 2004, receiving 56% of the vote. April 6, 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed him as the head of Mari El, upon Markelov's request. Criminal case A week later after his resign Markelov was arrested by the SKR on suspicion of taking a bribe in the amount of ₽235 million. In January 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office approved the indictment. According to this document, Markelov achieved the allocation of ₽5 billion of state support for the Akashevskaya poultry farm, and he received promissory notes for 234 million from its owner as a "gratitude". In late November 2019, the Nizhny Novgorod District Court confiscated Markelov's property for 2.2 billion rubles as acquired with undeclared income (including a shopping mall, 16 cars