| Petr Sumin will head the Chelyabinsk region for the fourth time It took deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region only 45 minutes yesterday to unanimously grant powers to the region’s governor, Pyotr Sumin. The period is miniscule compared to the five weeks during which the regional leader waited for the Russian president to decide his fate. As the Vremya Novostey newspaper already reported, Mr. Sumin raised the issue of trust with Vladimir Putin back on March 11. Explaining his early resignation (Petr Sumin's term of office expires only in December), the governor said that there are “a lot of issues in the region that need to start being resolved now, and not put off until the end of the year.”
Since March, any sign from the Kremlin in Chelyabinsk has been watched especially closely. Even the arrival of the head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Medvedev, on April 7 in Magnitogorsk was perceived not just as the first off-site meeting with the participation of plenipotentiary representatives in the federal districts, but as an informal approval of the candidacy of the current head of the Chelyabinsk region. The president officially supported the candidacy of Pyotr Sumin only a week later. A letter with a proposal to elect him as governor was received by the regional legislative assembly from Vladimir Putin on April 14. On the same day, the date for the extraordinary meeting of parliament was set - April 18.
Yesterday, the first to speak was the presidential envoy to the Ural Federal District, Pyotr Latyshev. He, however, did not tell the deputies about Mr. Sumin’s candidacy. According to him, local legislators “know Pyotr Ivanovich very well, so there is no need to talk about his work with his subordinates and the parliament.” Indeed, what new can be said about the man who headed the Chelyabinsk region for the fourth time. In 1989, Mr. Sumin , who was then the second secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, was elected chairman of the Chelyabinsk regional executive committee by deputies of the regional council. Then in 1996 and 2000 he was elected governor in direct elections.
In his response, Petr Sumin promised to fight poverty and increase the competitiveness of local enterprises. Mr. Sumin's inauguration ceremony is scheduled for April 22. On the same day, the regional government will resign, and the reappointed governor will decide on the new composition of the cabinet. Mikhail VIUGIN, Ekaterinburg |
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