The presidium of the United Russia’s Arkhangelsk branch last week supported a proposal on the introduction of the new system. With an overwhelming majority in the Arkhangelsk City Council the party will easily be able to get the new legislation adopted.
The introduction of the appointed city mayors comes after a longer period of tense relations between regional Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk and city Mayor Viktor Pavlenko. According to Rusnord.ru, Pavlenko might now soon be forced to leave his post, which he obtained after scandal elections in 2008.
Read more: Arkhangelsk election fraud comes to surface
With the city manager system, it will be the city councils which appoint the leader of the municipality. The system is already applied in a number of towns all over Russia and is likely to gain further ground in the years to come. According to President of the Petersburg Politics Fund, Mikhail Vinogradov, the system will soon be applied all over the country. He sees the new system as “an attempt to construct the Russian power vertical to the municipal level of power”, newspaper Kommersant reports.
In his eight year’s presidency, Vladimir Putin significantly centralized Russian power relations, and the post as city mayor now remains the most prestigious regional-level elections. With the abolishment also of the mayoral elections, the regional electorates will be left only with voting on the local and regional parliaments. The policy of centralization, all part of Vladimir Putin’s desired “power vertical”, might however not be in the interests of President Medvedev, who is pushing for more liberalization and competition in all parts of society, Professor of political science at the Moscow State University Rostislav Turovsky told Kommersant.
Arkhangelsk is not the only regional capital in Northwest Russia which now faces the introduction of appointed city managers. Also Murmansk is likely to get the new system. After a period of tense relations with city Mayor Sergey Subbotin, the Murmansk City Council last week unanimously decided to dismiss the mayor.
At the same time, City Council confirms at its website that the introduction of the new model is under preparation.
It is first of all the United Russia party which will benefit from the new system. Over the last months, the party has lost several mayoral elections in key cities. According to critics, the introduction of the system with city managers will help the party keep its control over the state of affairs. And after all, the father of the Russia power vertical, Prime Minister Putin, is the party chairman.
