At a meeting in the Murmansk City Council today Stepan Tananykin unexpectedly announced his resignation from the post as Mayor of Murmansk, B-port.com reports. He recommended that Aleksey Veller should take over his post.
In his announcement to the council Tananykin said that the last four months had been tough and that he had not been able to avoid scandals in the council. He added that much time had been lost to fighting within the council.
After a short period of consultations, the council members voted for Aleksey Veller’s candidacy to the post. 23 voted for him, four against, B-port.com writes in another article.
Aleksey Veller resigned as Head of the City Council in August, at the same meeting where Tananykin was elected Mayor of Murmansk. Veller’s resignation was the final step in a dispute between the City Council and the former mayor, Sergey Subbotin, who was dismissed by the council in June 2010 after accusations of “unsatisfactory work”.
As BarentsObserver reported, Murmansk Oblast Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko had suggested that if Subbotin had to leave his post, then Veller should do the same, in order to level the situation.
Sergey Subbotin was elected Mayor of Murmansk in March 2009. He ran as an independent candidate and received some 60 percent of the votes, while United Russia’s candidate Mikhail Savchenko got 35 percent. Then Governor of Murmansk Oblast Yury Yevdokimov openly expressed his support to Subbotin, and was forced to leave the post less than a week later.
