The curator of internal policy of the Samara region resigned without waiting for approval

Acting Vice-Governor – Head of the Department of Internal Policy of the Samara Region, Dmitry Kochergin, wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will. According to Kommersant, the reason could be his conflict with Governor Dmitry Azarov, which allegedly happened on March 25: the very next day, the issue of approving Mr. Kochergin for the post of vice-governor was excluded from the agenda of the meeting of the Samara Provincial Duma. The expert considers this resignation to be evidence of the ongoing personnel crisis in the region.

The regional government did not officially announce the resignation of Dmitry Kochergin. According to Kommersant’s information, he wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will on March 25. Kommersant’s government sources say that the reason for the dismissal could have been some conflict between the official and Governor Dmitry Azarov, which allegedly occurred on March 25.

The next day, the Samara Provincial Duma was supposed to consider the issue of approving Mr. Kochergin for the post of vice-governor – head of the regional department of internal policy, but right before the meeting this item was excluded from the previously published agenda.

Neither Dmitry Kochergin nor Dmitry Azarov were present at the Duma meeting. They did not answer Kommersant’s calls.

At the same meeting, Yuri Rozhin was agreed to the position of vice-governor – head of the department for law enforcement and anti-corruption. Let us note that the Samara government has not yet been fully formed, although six months have passed since Dmitry Azarov was re-elected for a second term. In particular, the Minister of Construction and the Minister of Forestry, Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management have not been reappointed.

Dmitry Kochergin has been working in the leadership of the Samara region since February 2020, and before that he was deputy chairman of the government of the Trans-Baikal Territory, where he also oversaw internal policy. According to Kommersant, the post of head of the internal policy department of the Samara region can now be taken by Alexander Chernenko, deputy head of the same department and head of the department for interaction with municipalities. But his candidacy has yet to be approved by the governor with the presidential administration.

In February, Kommersant’s sources reported that Mr. Kochergin was de facto removed from supervising the presidential campaign in the Samara region and these functions were transferred to former regional Duma deputy and SVO member Dmitry Kholin, who took over the post of head of the governor’s administration at the end of February.

And this appointment, in turn, may have been connected with the authorities’ attempt to level out the scandal with the former first vice-governor – chairman of the regional government, Viktor Kudryashov, who was charged with abuse of power. In relation to the son of ex-official Yuri Kudryashov, a commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted an investigation for possible involvement in the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The scientific director of the Institute of Regional Problems, Dmitry Zhuravlev, notes that the resignation of a candidate agreed upon by the presidential administration is “a rather specific case.” “This happens rarely, but I would not say that this is a revolt of the governor against the presidential administration. Most likely, Dmitry Azarov managed to make a call to higher management and say that, relatively speaking, he can no longer work with Dmitry Kochergin. Of course, this was not in the form of an ultimatum, but in a pleading form,” the expert argues. In his opinion, what happened means that the management crisis in the region continues. “It was easy for the governor to reassign his entire team, since this is not his first term. If he did not do this, then there are contradictions in his own government. It is also difficult to assemble a new team, since, obviously, there is no queue of people interested,” sums up Mr. Zhuravlev.

Evgeny Chernov, Samara