Political history of the Kaliningrad region – Newspaper Kommersant No. 162 (7363) of 09/05/2022

In September 1991, People’s Deputy of the RSFSR Yuri Matochkin By presidential decree, he was appointed head of the administration of the Kaliningrad region. Under his leadership, the region was assigned the status of a free economic zone and the law “On the status of the Kaliningrad region” was developed, which expanded the powers of the regional leadership in the field of international relations.

In 1996, Yuri Matochkin (40.44%) lost the election Leonid Gorbenko (49.56%), the former general director of the Kaliningrad State Sea Fishing Port. In March 2000, to the question “Kommersant” “How many terms do you need?” he replied: “Two terms are normal. Enough for me”. Six months later, Mr. Gorbenko lost the election to the former admiral of the Baltic Fleet Vladimir Egorov, gaining 33.8% of the vote against 56.3%. In September 2005, Mr. Yegorov resigned ahead of schedule.

On September 16, 2005, on the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation, the Kaliningrad Regional Duma approved the vice-speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation as governor George Boos, before that he lived and worked in the capital. In August 2010, United Russia presented the president with a list of candidates for the head of the Kaliningrad region, which Mr. Boos did not get into. Before that, thousands of opposition rallies were held in the region, the participants of which demanded the resignation of not only the governor, but also the federal government.

In August 2010, the region was headed by Nikolay Tsukanov, former head of the Gusevsky municipal district of the Kaliningrad region. A year later, more than 1,200 Kaliningraders wrote an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev complaining about the governor’s personnel policy. In 2015, Mr. Tsukanov won the direct election of the governor (70.41% of the vote), but in July 2016 he left the post ahead of schedule, becoming the plenipotentiary in the Northwestern Federal District.

In July 2016, the Acting Head of the Kaliningrad Region was appointed Evgeny Zinichev, head of the regional department of the FSB. However, after 70 days, he resigned “due to family circumstances”.

On October 6, 2016, the acting head of the region was appointed Anton Alikhanov. Previously, he was deputy chairman and acting head of the regional government. At that time, Mr. Alikhanov became the youngest governor in the history of Russia (he was 30 years old). In the 2017 elections, he received 81.1% of the vote. In July 2022, he proposed to build a dedicated railway and highway to Kaliningrad in response to restrictions on the transit of goods through Lithuania.