Translated material
Will Kress remain as head of the region? Or who is running for governor?
The article “Candidate for Governor from Sechin” has been published on gazeta.ru. Will the Governor of the Tomsk Region, Viktor Kress, resign as head of the region in March?
Victor Kress will not be reappointed governor of the Tomsk region, United Russia decided in consultations with the Kremlin . The candidacy of a successor has already been approved; this person is connected with Igor Sechin and Rosneft, sources say.
Victor Kress, who has headed the Tomsk region since 1991, will leave his post in March 2011, when his term of office expires. Candidates to replace him were discussed in United Russia, where consultations took place between the first deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the party's Supreme Council Boris Gryzlov and the leadership of the presidium of the General Council. “The consultations were constructive. They will continue,” Volodin said following the results, his words were reported in the party. Previously, exactly the same commentary was sent out every time when governors were reassigned on behalf of Vladislav Surkov, whom Volodin replaced in this post and is now obliged to participate in such negotiations.
In the Tomsk region, they are not surprised by Kress’s impending departure: he has headed the region since 1995, and in the period 1991-1995 he headed the regional administration. At the same time, he did not want to leave, representatives of regional branches of opposition parties note. Because of this, Kress did not prepare a successor, and all the ambitious people around him sooner or later lost their positions, Alexey Fedorov, first secretary of the Tomsk regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Gazeta.Ru.
As an example of such “purges,” he cites the fate of two first deputy governors, both of whom, in his opinion, can currently be nominated as candidates for the post of head of the region. This is the former first deputy governor Sergei Ilyinykh, who heads the Tomsk City Duma and the Tomsk regional branch of United Russia, and the former first deputy governor Oksana Kozlovskaya, who now heads the Tomsk Regional Duma.
“Both of them are now running for the governor’s post, but all consultations are being conducted in Moscow, they don’t even ask for our opinion,” says Fedorov.
A Gazeta.Ru source close to the presidential administration confirmed that both of these candidates could be included in the list of candidates. According to his information, Oksana Kozlovskaya was in Moscow on Tuesday for negotiations with the administration, and Ilyinykh is making every effort to secure the governor’s seat. he got it.
Ilyinykh is lobbying for his candidacy for the gubernatorial post with the help of Volodin and the plenipotentiary representative in the Volga Federal District, Mikhail Babich, but he has poor relations with many representatives of the regional elites, director of the International Institute of Political Expertise Evgeniy Minchenko told Gazeta.Ru. Kozlovskaya has good positions in business structures and could also be a candidate, the expert argues, noting that the Kremlin’s final decision may turn out to be quite unexpected.
Among other possible contenders from the Tomsk power elite is the senator from the Tomsk region Vladimir Zhidkikh; the list may also include the rector of the Tomsk Polytechnological University Petr Chubik.
An interlocutor close to the administration believes that Zhidkikh can really be included in the list of contenders for Kress’s post; the senator himself, in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, denied his gubernatorial ambitions.
A candidate to replace Kress has already been chosen, and the decisive factor in the consultations was the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees the work of Rosneft and has enormous influence on the economy of the region, says a Gazeta.Ru source close to the presidential administration, but does not name him .
Sechin, according to this information, was directly involved in the selection of applicants. However, the leadership of United Russia refused to disclose the name of the candidate.
“It should be noted that the logic of the appointments in recent months is lobbying for corporate interests. There is a serious player in the Tomsk region - Tomskneft, which received the assets of YUKOS, from this point of view, it is likely that the candidacy of the new governor will be completely at the mercy of Igor Sechin,” concludes Minchenko. This candidate is not named.
The appointment of a “Varyag” instead of one of the regional politicians is quite likely, since the decisions will be made “from above”, and United Russia will unanimously vote for whoever the president nominates, no matter who it is, although the regional elites will be extremely dissatisfied with the arrival governor from the outside, Galina Nemtseva, first secretary of the Tomsk regional branch of A Just Russia, told Gazeta.Ru. According to her, Kress hoped to retain his chair until the last moment, so now there is a situation of uncertainty in the region.
The final choice of the new governor is unpredictable and may be devoid of logic: this is the style of the Kremlin’s policy in recent months, says Alexander Kynev, head of regional programs at the Information Policy Development Foundation.
According to him, in recent years, the Tomsk region, which previously adopted fairly liberal rules of the political game, has been demonstrating a transition to a more authoritarian model. This is due to the rise to power of young careerists who are not burdened with special political convictions, the political scientist believes. After Kress's departure, power will only rely on administrative resources, while all previous campaigns were built around the personality of the governor, the expert believes.