The clear message to the governors was broadcasted from the President’s residence in Gorki outside Moscow during a video-conference with his envoys to Russia’s seven federal districts. The transcript from the video-conference was later published on President’s website Kremlin.ru
- I want you to present this position clearly and unambiguously to the governors: Either they deal with the problems, or I will have to remove them from their offices irrespective of their merits, Medvedev said.
Medvedev instructed the seven federal district envoys to have the strictest and most exacting conversation with governors. Among the envoys is Ilya Khlebanov for Russia’s northwest federal district including all Russian members in the Barents Region.
It was former president Vladimir Putin who abolished the popular elections of provincial governors by introducing a law which gave the president the right to dismiss and appoint governors.
In March this year, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on termination of Murmansk Oblast Governor Yury Yevdokimov’s authorities.
Yevdokimov was sacked after Medvedev gave him “one last warning” and told him to concentrate on solving domestic problems instead of “fooling around abroad,” BarentsObserver wrote. That warning came just few days after the governor had been in Norway to sign a cooperation agreement with the Norwegian county of Troms.
Earlier this spring BarentsObserver reported that another Barents Region governor, head of the Republic of Karelia, Sergei Katanandov, is said to be on the list of governors soon expected to be ousted.
Together with Vladimir Torlopov - head of the Republic of Komi, Sergei Katanandov is the last acting elected regional leaders in the Russian part of the Barents Region.
The first to be dismissed was Nenets Governor Aleksey Barinov. He was arrested in May 2006 accused of fraud and then subsequently dismissed from his position. Barinov was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007, although he still claims that the case against him has been initiated by political opponents, BarentsObserver reported in 2007.
Last elected Arkhangelsk Governor, Nikolay Kiselyov, was sacked and replaced by Ilya Mikhalchuk in April 2008. Mikhalchuk came to Arkhangelsk from Siberia where he earlier was city Mayor in Yakutsk. At the same time, Mikhalchuk brought with him a mass of other bureaucrats from Yakutsk.
