Krasnoyarsk – the region – Kommersant
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On Thursday, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Alexander Uss (United Russia), resigned of his own free will. He was replaced by Deputy Minister of Finance Mikhail Kotyukov, who is well acquainted with this region, who was predicted to be Krasnoyarsk governor back in 2017. Experts predicted the departure of Mr. Uss for a long time, and they call Mr. Kotyukov a very suitable leader for the region.
On the evening of April 20 (Krasnoyarsk time), Alexander Uss wrote on his Telegram channel that he had recently met with President Vladimir Putin and received an offer from him to “continue work at the federal level.” “But at the same time, to deal with the issues of socio-economic development of our region,” Mr. Uss specified. He thanked the president for his trust and support, as well as everyone with whom he was “together in difficult moments” and with whom he “went to common achievements and success.”
“I am sure that the Krasnoyarsk Territory will retain the status of one of the supporting regions of Russia in the future,” summed up the now former head of the region.
Almost immediately after that, the Kremlin’s official website announced a video meeting between Vladimir Putin and Russian Deputy Finance Minister Mikhail Kotyukov. The President noted that the official had worked in the Krasnoyarsk Territory for many years and therefore knew about its importance for Russia. “It seems to me (you.— “b”) are quite close to leading such an important subject of the Russian Federation as the Krasnoyarsk Territory,” the head of state continued. “Are you ready for this yourself?”
Mr. Kotyukov thanked Mr. Putin for his support to the region, and promised to use “all his potential, all opportunities to solve the most pressing, pressing issues for residents.”
According to him, in his new post he will keep in view the development of the energy complex, communal infrastructure, transport system, ecology and rural areas. Concluding the conversation, Vladimir Putin noted the contribution of Alexander Uss to the development of the region. “I am sure that the transfer of affairs will take place in a businesslike, comradely manner and, if necessary, you can always rely on what has been done, on his experience in leading the region,” the president concluded.
Mikhail Kotyukov is 46 years old, a native of Krasnoyarsk and a graduate of Krasnoyarsk State University with a degree in finance and credit. In 1997, he began working in the regional administration, where in 2003 he rose from deputy head of the main financial department to vice governor, and then minister of finance and vice premier of the regional government (under governor Alexander Khloponin). In April 2010, Mr. Kotyukov began his federal career, moving to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation as head of the department for budget policy in the social sphere and science. In June 2012, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, in October 2013 – head of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO), and on May 18, 2018 – the first Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. In December of the same year, he became a member of the Supreme Council of United Russia (ER). In January 2020, Mikhail Kotyukov resigned along with the entire government of Dmitry Medvedev, and in March he took over as Deputy Minister of Finance.
The position of Krasnoyarsk governor was predicted by the media to Mikhail Kotyukov back in 2017, when he headed the FASO and was in good standing in the presidential administration (AP).
On September 27, 2017, the then head of the region, Viktor Tolokonsky, announced his resignation at a meeting of the regional government, but his resignation was officially announced only on September 29. And during this time period, it was Mikhail Kotyukov who was named as the main candidate for the post of governor, and not the speaker of the regional parliament, Alexander Uss.
The young head of FANO really fit better into the new trends in the cadre policy of the Presidential Administration: they then relied on the so-called young technocrats (later this term was abandoned in the Kremlin’s domestic political bloc), under the image of which Mr. Kotyukov was quite suitable. The good attitude of the Presidential Administration towards him is also evidenced by the fact that just in 2017-2018, the official became a graduate of the first stream of the program of the personnel management reserve of the Higher School of Public Administration, RANEPA, which experts also call the “school of governors”. In recent years, the completion of these courses has become almost a prerequisite for candidates for governorships.
Alexander Uss, in turn, represented the old elites and in 2002, as chairman of the regional legislature, he himself participated in the election of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Then he entered the second round together with the head of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug Alexander Khloponin, but lost 6% of the vote to him.
According to Kommersant’s sources, Mr. Uss succeeded in taking the post of governor in 2017 thanks to the patronage of high-ranking patrons, but, apparently, he did not become his own for the Presidential Administration.
For example, in the Kremlin, as previously reported by Kommersant, they have long expressed dissatisfaction with the low ratings of Alexander Uss. And in 2021, a well-informed Kommersant source close to the Presidential Administration claimed that they doubted whether the head of the region should head the regional list of United Russia in the elections to the State Duma, and he never made it to this list. In addition, Kommersant’s interlocutors periodically talked about the conflict between Mr. Uss and the head of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin. However, according to them, the governor managed to find a compromise both with Mr. Potanin and with other major regional players. And Kommersant’s interlocutors, until the last moment, were not sure whether Mr. Uss would leave his post or still go for a second term.
Alexander Uss became the fourth governor to retire this spring. For three of them, the term of office ended in September 2023: in addition to Mr. Uss, these are the head of Chukotka, Roman Kopin (ER) and Omsk leader Alexander Burkov (“A Just Russia – For Truth”). The first was replaced by the former vice-governor of the Kurgan region Vladislav Kuznetsov, the second – by the ex-minister of the Stavropol Territory Roman Khotsenko, both with recent experience in the leadership of the people’s republics of Donbass. The powers of the fourth retiree, the Smolensk governor Alexei Ostrovsky (LDPR), expired in the fall of 2025: Vasily Anokhin, director of one of the departments of the Russian government apparatus, was appointed to replace him.
According to RBC, after the resignation, Alexander Uss can move to the position of representative of the regional parliament in the Federation Council. To do this, not only the current senator from the Legislative Assembly Valery Semenov, but also one of the regional deputies, whose mandate Mr. Uss, who headed the list of United Russia in the last elections to the regional parliament, will be able to receive ahead of schedule.
The return of Mikhail Kotyukov in the Krasnoyarsk Territory was received positively. “He knows people, he is familiar with the situation,” Alexei Dodatko, chairman of the legislative assembly, secretary of the United Russia regional department, told Kommersant. Alexander Ratakhin, head of the Communist Party faction, agrees with him:
“Mikhail Kotyukov is not a Varangian, he was born and lived in the Pokrovka microdistrict, he knows the situation in the region and in the city very well. There is hope that the same close attention will be paid to remote areas as to the large microdistricts of Krasnoyarsk.”
“The fact that Alexander Uss will not be left for a second term was obvious to most experts a year or even a year and a half ago,” notes Vasily Damov, head of the Sibmedia Agency communications agency. “But it was also obvious that the governor would be allowed to finalize until the maximum possible date: in Moscow, he is in good standing, despite the informational scandals that accompanied his work from time to time, plus the story with his son, which Uss Sr. unambiguously went “into the credit””. Recall that Artem Uss was detained in Milan on October 17, 2022 on suspicion of money laundering, and on March 23, 2023, after the extradition to the United States was approved, he escaped from house arrest and returned to Russia.
According to political strategist Yevgeny Minchenko, the resignation of Oleksandr Uss was expected, since he was in the “red zone” of the governors’ political stability rating. But the story of the arrest of his son did not play a plus or a minus in this case, the expert believes. “When potential candidates were discussed, both Moscow Krasnoyarsk residents and people in the region spoke positively about Mikhail Kotyukov, they said that this would be the best option,” adds Mr. Minchenko.
Regionalist Rostislav Turovsky calls Mikhail Kotyukov the biggest figure of all the spring appointees. “From the arguments in favor of Kotyukov – a great experience in the region in a successful team, then a great experience in holding important positions in the government. If Uss was an experienced, but only local heavyweight, a vestige of a bygone era, then Kotyukov is a native of the region who made a successful career in the center. This allows us to count on improving relations between the region and the government of the Russian Federation,” the expert notes.
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