Translated material
For family reasons
Stavropol governor asked to resign
Yesterday it became known that the Governor of the Stavropol Territory, Alexander Chernogorov, submitted his resignation . “This is my personal decision made by me. It concerns a change in the position that I currently occupy,” said the head of the region. He explained that the reason for his proposed resignation from the post of governor was “personal issues” related to solving family problems - the death of his father and the serious illness of his mother. Meanwhile, in the last year, Mr. Chernogorov did not sit very firmly in the governor's chair . His resignation was expected after the regional parliamentary elections on March 11, 2007 - the Stavropol Territory then became the only region in the country where United Russia, headed by the governor, did not gain control of the legislative assembly.Alexander Chernogorov was first elected governor in 1996 as a candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In 2000, he was re-elected for a second term. In October 2005, on the eve of his reappointment, Mr. Chernogorov became infamous throughout the country during a direct line with Vladimir Putin. When the head of state was communicating with the people, a resident of the Degtyarevsky farm, Lyudmila Karachentseva, complained that, contrary to promises, the farm had still not received water supply. Putin replied: “The documents regarding the Stavropol governor have been prepared for dispatch, but will not be sent until he resolves this problem.” Then Alexander Chernogorov urgently carried out water supply and was reassigned. Later, following the example of many regional heads, he joined United Russia.
In March last year, the governor’s position was radically shaken: United Russia won only 23.93% of the votes in the elections to the Stavropol Legislative Assembly, far behind A Just Russia (37.62%). Considering that the list was headed by the governor himself, all responsibility for the defeat of the party in power fell on him. Mr. Chernogorov had to put his party card on the table. And then the leader of United Russia, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov openly called on the governor to resign. “I believe that if the people in the Stavropol Territory voted in such a way that United Russia received only the second result, then this means that we pursued the wrong policy in the Stavropol Territory, and, of course, we will replace the regional leader of the party, and we will also raise the question of the leadership of the Stavropol Territory,” said Mr. Gryzlov.
Nevertheless, after a harsh statement from the leader of the party in power, Alexander Chernogorov managed to hold out as governor for a whole year. Much earlier, his main internal political opponent, the former mayor of Stavropol Dmitry Kuzmin, who headed the A Just Russia list in the same March elections, left his position. The Stavropol Territory went down in the history of Russian party building as the site of the most brutal clash between United Russia and A Just Russia. The streets of the regional capital were flooded with rallies - some groups of comrades called for Kuzmin to resign, others for Chernogorov. The struggle was echoed in a series of Duma requests to the Prosecutor General's Office. For example, United Russia and Spravednorossiya demanded to find out who made the decision to dismantle the monument to the heroic dominators in Stavropol - the governor or the mayor? Kuzmin was reminded of a long-standing incident - an accident that occurred due to the fault of the then head of the Pyatigorsk administration, Igor Tarasov. According to the authors of the document, Dmitry Kuzmin, while at the scene of the incident, did not provide assistance to the victims. And Chernogorov was overtaken by a family scandal: he was criticized in the press as a bad family man by his own wife Irina. The governor expressed the opinion that his wife was bribed by A Just Russia.
On the eve of the Duma elections, held on December 2, 2007, Dmitry Kuzmin was removed from office at the request of investigators from the regional investigative department. He was accused of exceeding his official powers and abusing them. Now the former mayor is on the federal wanted list. And United Russia did not trust the non-party governor Alexander Chernogorov to head their list in the federal elections. The popular Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu was sent to save the situation in the region. Thus, there were no winners in this war among Stavropol politicians.
True, it is too early to consider that Mr. Chernogorov has finally given up the post of governor. Yesterday, the press service of Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the governor of the Stavropol Territory sent a letter of resignation of his own free will. However, they emphasized that a decision on Chernogorov’s application has not yet been made.
As for potential candidates for the post of Stavropol governor, among them, in particular, are the head of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Stavropol Territory Nikolai Goncharov, who occupied third place in the regional list of United Russia in the Duma elections, but refused the mandate, as well as the current Minister of Agriculture of Russia Alexey Gordeev. The latter was at one time expected to become Ryazan governor, but this appointment never took place. However, if we recall the gubernatorial appointments of the last two or three years, not a single personnel forecast was justified.
As for unsatisfied gubernatorial resignations, so far in the modern history of Russia there has been only one such case - Vladimir Putin did not release the governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich from his post.