Elected governors plan to work with old teams

“Serious changes” will be made in the government of Yakutia, said the head of the republic, Aisen Nikolaev (who won 75.77% of the votes in the elections) on September 28, dismissing his cabinet of ministers in connection with the start of the second term. He noted that he will hold separate meetings with those members of the government who will continue to work in order to set specific tasks for the coming years. Nikolaev did not name the names of potential retirees. At the same time, he noted that government members “have the right to be proud of the results achieved”: the gross regional product has more than doubled over the past five years (from 900 billion rubles in 2017 to 2 trillion rubles in 2022).

Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Mikhail Kotyukov (70.22%) submitted for approval to the Legislative Assembly five candidates for the positions of members of the government, only one new person. A native of Krasnoyarsk, Sergei Kuzmin, who worked as Kotyukov’s deputy at the Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations (FANO) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, was offered to take the post of deputy chairman of the regional government. Kuzmin will coordinate the activities of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development. The current Deputy Minister Tatyana Magdibur has been proposed for the post of Minister of Economy. The current head of the department, Anna Garnets, will leave her post. Vedomosti wrote that the first vice-governor Sergei Ponomarenko could be replaced, but he retained his position.

Nikolaev is the only governor elected on the single voting day on September 10 who announced major personnel changes. Most regional heads promise only targeted reinforcements or do without personnel changes. Governor of the Omsk region Vitaly Khotsenko (76.33% of the vote) stated on September 13 that changes would take place, but “would not be large-scale” because he had worked “with most of the team.” “Possible changes will involve someone moving to another region or moving to another place of work. But there will be certain gains,” he said.

There are no plans for fundamental changes in the government of the Pskov region, as Governor Mikhail Vedernikov (86.3% of the votes) stated in an interview with TASS on September 14. “As far as reassignments are concerned, there will be no major changes. I think that we have a fairly professional team. But the natural process of personnel renewal is inevitable,” he said. On September 18, Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Andrei Travnikov (76.14%) called not to expect personnel changes in the near future. According to him, changes will occur, “but not in the format of some urgent ones, but in the format of planned work, definitely not tied to the assumption of office by the current and newly elected governor.”

Governor of the Tyumen region Alexander Moor (78.77%) said on September 14 that “there are definitely no personnel changes in the immediate plans,” since “no one has failed a single task.” The governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin (82.82%), is also pleased with his subordinates, according to whom only minor changes should be expected in the composition of the regional government. Certain changes will occur in the composition of the government of the Primorsky Territory, which, as Acting First Vice-Governor and Chairman of the Regional Government Vera Shcherbina announced on September 21, will be formed by the end of October. Additional elections to the Legislative Assembly of Primorye are scheduled for October 29, at which the United Russia will nominate And. O. Vice Governor Anton Voloshko. On September 13, Vedomosti reported that if Voloshko wins the elections, he could become chairman of the legislative assembly.

There were no personnel changes in the government of Chukotka after Governor Vladislav Kuznetsov (72.34%) took office. On May 26, Vedomosti reported that on April 28, a document titled “Investigation” was posted on Kuznetsov’s Telegram channel for several minutes, which reported the risks of criminal prosecution of the acting first vice-governor Ilya Davidenko. The certificate noted that “an extremely undesirable development in the future scenario of law enforcement agencies” would be “conducting arrests, filing charges and other similar actions in the future until the end of September 2023.” Kuznetsov himself did not publicly comment on this. Even before the elections, Davidenko left his post, interlocutors in the government of the autonomous region told Vedomosti.

Today, governors are confident in their victory in the elections, so elections are not a significant milestone in their personnel policy, which develops in its own logic, says political scientist Rostislav Turovsky. “For example, replacements of major officials are possible even during the election campaign, as was the case in the Voronezh region (On August 17, Governor Alexander Gusev dismissed his deputy for internal policy, Sergei Sokolov, who went to work for the ONF. – Vedomosti),” – he told Vedomosti.