Rumors say Murmansk governor is out
Murmansk Governor Dmity Dmitriyenko has already resigned and left the region, Russian media writes. New head of Russia’s north-westernmost region could be the current head of the October Railway.
The Murmansk media and blogging community have for several days been writing about the Governor’s impending resignation. Now Moscow media with sources close to the Kremlin report that Dmitriyenko has written his resignation and that President Medvedev will soon announce a change of leadership. The only thing that has hampered the process was the search for a worthy successor, Vedomosti and Moscow Post write.
So far there has been no official announcement on Kremlin’s web site.
According to the website M51 Dmitrieynko left Murmansk on Sunday.
Criticism from Kreml and local elite
Dmitriyenko came to office in 2009 after the scandalous dismissal of Murmansk’s last public elected governor Yury Yevdokimov. Dmitriyenko was never a real popular governor, and replacing most of the local administrative elite with his own people has not helped the situation.
In the beginning of January, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin named Murmansk as one of three regions where the people judge the regional leadership as “very, very poor”, claiming that the governor’s reports on their own efficiency were not in accordance with peoples’ real living standards. Ilya Mikhalchuk, Governor of Arkhangelsk – one of the two other regions to be reprimanded by Putin, resigned from office just a few days later.
In the December 4 Duma elections the ruling party United Russia got only 32 percent of the votes, one of the lowest scores in Russia.
Read also: United Russia losing support in Murmansk
Possible successors
There are two possible successors to the post as Governor of Murmansk. Media names the current head of the October Railroad Viktor Stepov as the most probable candidate.
Stepov (54) has held position as Head of the October Railroad since 2004. He worked in the Murmansk branch of the October Railroad from 1987 to 1997.
The second possible candidate is Valery Yazev, State Duma delegate and leading United Russia’s list in Murmansk in the December Duma elections instead of Dmitriyenko.
