The speculations about possible regional leaders to be sacked by Presidential decree are many in today’s Russia. A so-called “black-list” outlines the most probable governors to be removed by President Dmitri Medvedev.
Sergei Katanandov, head of the Republic of Karelia, is one of the “to-be-removed” candidates, reports, the Weekly Journal.
In October last year BarentsObserver reported that Katanandov was one of the most unsuccessful Russian regional leaders, according to a rating made by the International Institute of Political Expertise and the Petersburg Politics Fund.
The Russian president got the right to appoint and dismiss governors under a law proposed by Putin in 2004.
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.
