Translated material
Look for parliament
There is no one to confirm the new Irkutsk governor in office
For the first time since the transition in the fall of 2004 from popular elections of governors to their approval by regional parliaments, the mechanism experienced a systemic failure. The confirmation of State Duma deputy Igor Esipovsky as governor of the Irkutsk region, whom Vladimir Putin proposed as acting governor on April 15, failed. There is simply no one to confirm the temporary head of the region in office. And now Dmitry Medvedev will make a decision on the candidacy of the Irkutsk governor, and most likely not earlier than the fall.By law, the local legislative assembly must approve the governor. But since January 1, 2008, the Irkutsk region has been united with the Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug into a single Irkutsk region, but there is no regional assembly yet - elections to it should take place only on October 12.
A similar situation arose last winter in the newly formed Trans-Baikal Territory , which officially appeared on the map of the country on March 1, 2008. However, Transbaikalia managed to acquire a new governor even before this date. Therefore, the candidacy of Ravil Geniatullin was consistently approved by the legislative assemblies of two merging subjects of the federation - the Chita region and the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug. Elections to the regional assembly are also scheduled for October 12 in this region.
The united Irkutsk region already exists, so the decision on the governor should be made by the parliament of the new subject of the federation, and not by the legislative assemblies of its constituent parts.
The incident with Esipovsky indicates that the former head of the Irkutsk region, Alexander Tishanin, clearly did not intend to resign before the expiration of his term. On April 15, the day the United Russia congress ended, President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly granted Mr. Tishanin’s previously submitted resignation request. This haste attracted the attention of analysts, as did the fact that the president decided to make Igor Esipovsky, a native of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport, the interim head of the region.
From 2000 to 2005, Igor Esipovsky held the position of head of the department of dual-use goods and technologies at Rosoboronexport. And when control over AvtoVAZ passed to the federal state unitary enterprise, Mr. Esipovsky moved to the chair of the general director of the automobile giant. Analysts consider him to be the nominee of the former head of Rosoboronexport, Sergei Chemezov, who now holds the post of head of the state corporation Rostekhnologii.
“This will be the second head of the region from Rosoboronexport; the first was the governor of the Samara region, Vladimir Artyakov,” recalls Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies Alexey Makarkin. - Moreover, in both cases we are talking about significant regions. In addition, Mr. Chemezov himself is from the Irkutsk region, the appointment of his own person to this region is important for him, including from a psychological point of view. Now the alignment of the main apparatus forces is being determined with the expectation of a kind of diarchy between Putin and Medvedev, and the finishing touches are being applied to this scheme. Apparently, in this regard, Mr. Chemezov received additional opportunities to promote his figures.”
Taking into account this explanation, the sudden resignation of Alexander Tishanin becomes understandable. Obviously, in certain circles there was a great desire to quickly, even before the change of presidents, seat Mr. Esipovsky in the governor’s chair. Now Dmitry Medvedev himself will have to determine the new head of the Irkutsk region. True, Medvedev, like Putin, had already met with Mr. Esipovsky before his appointment as acting governor. And therefore it is not necessary that his final choice will be different.