Vladimir Putin Appoints Prime Minister of the DPR as Acting Governor of the Omsk Region

President Vladimir Putin accepted the resignation of the governor of the Omsk region Alexander Burkov (Fair Russia). The former chairman of the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, former official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vitaliy Khotsenko has been appointed as acting head of the region. The presidential decree says that Burkov resigned “of his own free will.”

The President held a meeting with Khotsenko via videoconference, asked how he assessed the situation in the DPR. Khotsenko said that when he was offered a position in the DPR, he immediately agreed, because “for me, the place is dear, I was born there, not far away, in Dnepropetrovsk.” According to him, now many objects in the DPR are being restored by the chief regions: “Much has been done and there is still a lot to be done.” According to him, a program of socio-economic development up to 2030 has been prepared, and it will be adopted in the near future.

This is where the transcript on the Kremlin website ends for the time being.

Khotsenko was the first Russian official to be appointed to a high post in Donbass after the start of a special military operation. He took over as Prime Minister of the DPR on June 8, 2022.

Now Khotsenko is 37 years old, he was born in Dnepropetrovsk. From 2008 to 2010 worked as the head of the analysis and forecasting department of the Yamal-Region State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Since 2010, he has held positions in government bodies of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in 2013 he became the Minister of Energy, Industry and Communications of the Stavropol Territory. And in 2019, he was appointed to the post of director of industrial policy and project management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. He is a graduate of the fourth course of the “School of Governors” – the Higher School of Public Administration of the RANEPA, a finalist of the “Leaders of Russia” competition.

Burkov is one of two regional leaders from the Just Russia party (the other is the head of Chuvashia, Oleg Nikolaev). He became acting head of the Omsk region in October 2017 after running the Duma election campaign for the party. Prior to that, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the V-VII convocations.

Burkov’s departure is the third gubernatorial resignation in two weeks. On March 15, Vladimir Putin replaced the head of Chukotka, Roman Kopin. He was replaced by the former first deputy chairman of the government of the LPR, a native of the company “Sibur» Vladislav Kuznetsov. And on March 17, the governor of the Smolensk region, Alexei Ostrovsky, one of the two governors from the Liberal Democratic Party, resigned. Vasily Anokhin, head of the regional development department of the Russian government, has been appointed to replace him as acting head of the region.