Then-Presidential Plenipotentiary to the Northwestern Federal District Alexander Beglov was appointed acting Governor of Saint Petersburg in October 2018, replacing two-term incumbent Georgy Poltavchenko, who resigned at his own request.

[2] Beglov ran for a full term as an Independent, despite prior affiliations to the United Russia party, and faced a potential highly competitive election due to his soaring unpopularity and the city's overall heightened oppositional sentiments.

Beglov won the September 2019 election with 64.43% against two opponents, Legislative Assembly members Nadezhda Tikhonova of A Just Russia and Mikhail Amosov of Civic Platform, both of whom received around 16%.

In autumn 2022 Prigozhin claimed that he invested 2 billion rubles into Beglov's 2019 campaign, while the governor sabotaged Wagner's headquarters opening and awarded city contracts to his friends and cronies.

[5] Governor Beglov in return replied that the conflict with Prigozhin had been caused by the businessman's desire to control food catering, garbage disposal and subway construction in the city.