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Murmansk governor was fired for deviation from the vertical of power and the party line
The loss of his position ended for the governor of the Murmansk region, Yuri Evdokimov, a protracted confrontation with the United Russia party, of which he, like the vast majority of heads of federal subjects, is a member. On Saturday, Mr. Evdokimov, who spent 13 years in the governor’s chair, voluntarily (according to the official version) resigned. The corresponding decree on the termination of his powers was signed by President Dmitry Medvedev. Previously, Evdokimov was re-elected three times as head of the region, and in 2007, his powers, according to the new order, were confirmed by then President Vladimir Putin.However, the wording “resignation of one’s own free will” in this case is rather misleading. Mr. Evdokimov, one of the veterans of the governor’s corps, has long been on various “short lists” of candidates for relegation. This was consistent with the federal government’s policy of updating regional elites and replacing the “old” governors. Yuri Evdokimov himself understood this very well and the day before his resignation he said in an interview: “If a replacement takes place, my duty will be to help the new person get up to speed as soon as possible.”
This new person will most likely be the deputy head of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Dmitry Dmitrienko, who was appointed acting governor. His candidacy has already been submitted by Dmitry Medvedev to the Murmansk Regional Duma to empower the head of the region. Mr. Dmitrienko already managed to hold consultations yesterday with representatives of several factions of the regional legislative assembly, and also speak out about how he sees the future of the region.
“To change the situation in the region, we need to look for new growth points,” he noted. “This includes the creation of a special port zone, the creation of a transport hub, and much more.” At the same time, he clarified that “there will be no revolutions,” especially personnel revolutions, “everything will go along an evolutionary path.” Parliamentarians are expected to consider the issue of appointing a new governor at a meeting on March 25.
The resignation of Yuri Evdokimov is given particular significance by the fact that it occurred just a week after the second round of the scandalous elections for the mayor of Murmansk. Let us recall that at the height of the election campaign, Mr. Evdokimov supported a supporter of the party in power, but non-party former vice-governor Sergei Subbotin, who ran as a self-nominated candidate. At the same time, United Russia advocated for the re-election of the current mayor, Mikhail Savchenko.
During the pre-election controversy, Mr. Evdokimov allowed himself several very harsh statements about his own party. The struggle was intense: in the first round of elections on March 1, neither candidate managed to win, with Mikhail Savchenko receiving 31%, and Sergei Subbotin lagging behind him with 24% of the votes. However, in the second round, held on March 15, Mr. Subbotin won with a score of 60%, while Mr. Savchenko received 35%, only slightly exceeding his own result in the first round. As a result, the governor's protégé was elected mayor of Murmansk, rather than the official candidate from the party in power.
Not only United Russia, but also the Kremlin could not tolerate such “disobedience.” “Evdokimov crossed a certain line of what was permitted, so the decision that followed was natural,” Oksana Goncharenko, a leading expert at the Center for Political Conjuncture, commented on this situation to a Vremya Novostei correspondent. - The decision was not problematic in the sense that the governor was quite popular in the region. There may also be costs associated with a change of government during a difficult time of crisis. However, the center had to show the regional elites that it was ready to cooperate with various forces, but at the same time it would firmly defend its interests in terms of maintaining political stability and the vertical of power. To ensure its functioning, the center is ready to take the most stringent measures, and it was important to demonstrate this to other governors as well.”
According to Ms. Goncharenko, the “last straw” was the story of the campaign on election day - we are talking about an excerpt from Mr. Evdokimov’s interview, in which the governor actually calls on voters to vote for Mr. Subbotin. This excerpt was shown several times on election day on a local television channel. Immediately after the announcement of the voting results, the Oktyabrsky District Court, where Mr. Savchenko filed a complaint, recognized the video as illegal propaganda. And on the same day, the Central Election Commission officially recognized the possibility of legal proceedings on the issue of invalidating the voting results.
True, Mr. Savchenko subsequently admitted defeat, and Mr. Subbotin announced that he would cooperate with United Russia. Apparently, this will settle the dispute over the mayor's seat. “No one needs the cancellation of elections,” says Ms. Goncharenko. “No one is interested in resuming open conflict and canceling the voting results, especially since holding elections is an expensive undertaking.” In addition, the bill, adopted on Friday in the first reading by the State Duma, will very soon give city Dumas the opportunity to remove from office mayors who are objectionable to the governors. So if Sergei Subbotin does not work well with the new head of the region, new elections can be announced without lengthy legal proceedings.