Many regional governors of Russia simultaneously resigned

RT Reportedly, all five of these governors will step down at the end of the year, ahead of regional elections scheduled for September 11.

Of the five Russian regional governors who resigned, two have served two consecutive terms and held positions for a decade, since 2012. They are Mr. Sergey Zhvachkin – Tomsk region, Siberia and Mr. Valery Radaev – Saratov region of the Volga federal region.

Although, in 2021, Russia passed a law allowing governors to serve more than two consecutive terms, however, both Sergey Zhvachkin and Valery Radaev said they would not run for another term at the election. upcoming election.

The other two outgoing governors are Nikolay Lyubimov of the Ryazan Oblast province in central Russia and Alexander Evstifeev, head of the Mari El Republic, an autonomous region of the Mari people.

Both Mr. Nikolay Lyubimov and Mr. Alexander Evstifeev have been governors since 2017. Mr. Alexander Evstifeev was previously a judge of the Moscow region commercial court. Both of them did not disclose the reason for their resignation.

The list of resignations also includes the governor of Kirov Oblast province – another region in the Volga federal region – Mr. Igor Vasilyev. This position has been in office since 2016. He asked President Vladimir Putin to resign because he plans to work at the “federal level”. Governor Vasilyev used to work with the State Registry of Russia – the federal agency that deals with issues related to land and real estate.

On the same day, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing acting governors for all five regions. Two of these – Boris Mazur (Tomsk Oblast) and Mr. Alexander Sokolov (Kirov Oblast) – previously worked with the presidential administration. Mr. Pavel Malkov, who is about to take over Ryazan Oblast from Mr. Lyubimov, was once the head of Russia’s state statistics service (Rosstat) – the body responsible for the national census in 2021.

According to RT, the mass resignation of the above officials has attracted media attention. However, Russian political analysts do not consider it an unusual event.

“That’s nothing new,” Mr. Aleksey Markin – Deputy Director of the Center for Political Technology, told the news agency Interfax. In the past, governors have sometimes announced their resignations before an election, he added, if they felt their confidence was falling.