Voronezh governor Gusev allowed to be re-elected for a second term

The governor of the Voronezh region Alexander Gusev was allowed to be re-elected for a second term. This was reported to Vedomosti by two sources close to the presidential administration of Russia. According to them, in the near future he will meet with President Vladimir Putin (via videoconference). This means that Gusev’s powers for the new governor’s term have been “reconfirmed,” one of the sources says. The second interlocutor of Vedomosti also says that the decision has been made.

Elections in the region are to be held on September 10, 2023. The question of whether the ex-mayor of Voronezh will run again for a new gubernatorial term has been “pending” until recently. In favor of Gusev, according to another interlocutor of Vedomosti, close to the presidential administration, the fact that the region is close to the border played, and in the current situation they decided not to rotate once again. It also played into the hands of the fact that the region has no obvious failures.

Vedomosti sent a request to the press service of the governor of the Voronezh region.

According to political scientist Vladimir Slatinov, the border status of the region, proximity to new territories is a serious argument for re-election. “And since, at the same time, the region manages to maintain a high level of manageability, and it copes quite well with economic and social challenges, as well as with still conflicting internal elites, this set of circumstances played in favor of Gusev,” says Slatinov.

In April, according to data from the Kremlin website, the president already had meetings with the head of the YaNAO Dmitry Artyukhov, with the governor of the Pskov region Mikhail Vedernikov, Oleg Kozhemyako of Primorye, and the head of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov. In the same month, Putin received the acting heads of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions Vladimir Saldo and Yevgeny Balitsky, as well as the DPR and LPR Denis Pushilin and the LPR Leonid Pasechnik. In March, Putin met with the head of the Samara region, Dmitry Azarov, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, before that, in February, with the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, and in January, with the head of the Novosibirsk region, Andrey Travnikov.

All of them will participate in the elections in one format or another. In total, 25 regional leaders will be elected (by direct vote or through parliament) in September, assuming that the heads of all four new entities will be “elected” by legislative assemblies as early as 2023 (so far, the corresponding decision has been made only in the DPR and LPR, in Kherson and Zaporozhye there is no legal solution).

Eight people will become leaders of the regions for the first time – they enter the campaign with the status of interim and traditionally meet with the president before being appointed. Formally, the rest not required communicate with the head of state in order to run for a new term.