The governor, who was appointed two weeks ago, has decided to reshuffle the whole government of the republic. Hardly any of the leaders of former governor Sergei Katananodov’s government will remain in office, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports.
In addition, practically all the new cabinet members come from other regions, and have sparse experiences from the Republic of Karelia.
Among the surprising appointments is Maksim Grigoriev, a well-known political scientist from Moscow, who now will work as Nelidov’s Deputy. New leader of economic affairs will be Valentin Luntsevich, a long serving politician from Murmansk.
With the major number of newcomers in government, Nelidov follows a trend popular among new Russian governors. He is consequently also likely to experience many the same problems as in other regions in the same situation. Where leading posts in the region are filled with people without comprehensive regional knowledge, it takes more time to get started with new initiatives. It also often creates additional distance to the regional populations.
As previously reported, the new governor of Karelia is 53 years old, and has earlier been the region’s representative in the Federation Council. He replaced Sergei Katanandov who had served as governor since 1998.
Katanandov said he left office because of unspecified personal reasons. He is now a possible candidate to become the region’s new representative in the Federal Council, Karelinform.ru reports.
