2018 Seredinian Cash for Influence scandal

The 2018 Cash for Influence scandal was a political scandal in the Seredinian Union. The scandal directly implicated then-Government Ministers Denis Samsonov and Polina Konycheva as well as over a dozen other deputies for the governing Social Democratic-Liberal Republican coalition and three Kadets. It precipitated multiple resignations from the Second Vyrubova government, and a reshuffle into the Third Vyrubova government.

The scandal consisted of a system in which prominent members of the government and State Duma granted access and policy influence to individuals and organizations in exchange for up to Г500,000 under the guise of providing political consulting and other services.

As a result of the scandal, which was widely publicized by Seredinian journalists of Zolodolina Pravda in a series of long-form articles on the subject, both Samsonov and Konycheva resigned from the cabinet and later the Duma, and other prominent deputies such as former Foreign Office spokesman and Kadet Oleg Chugainov and then-Interior Ministry undersecretary Anna Dunayevskaya also resigned.