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The heads of the Ivanovo region and the Perm region retained their posts due to inertia
After the political upheavals associated with the replacement of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov with Sergei Sobyanin , the latest appointments of regional heads followed the inertial scenario. The governor of the Ivanovo region, Mikhail Men, and the head of the Perm region, Oleg Chirkunov, retain their posts. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed their candidacies to regional legislative assemblies for vesting with appropriate powers. Mikhail Men was confirmed in office on October 22 at an extraordinary meeting of the regional parliament. The powers of Oleg Chirkunov are expected to be confirmed at a meeting on Wednesday, October 27.The re-affirmation of Mr. Me took place without any force majeure. United Russia previously presented Dmitry Medvedev with a list of candidates for the post of head of the Ivanovo region, which, in addition to the current governor, included the chairman of the Ivanovo Regional Duma Sergei Pakhomov and State Duma deputy Tatyana Yakovleva. Mr. Pakhomov, who is also the secretary of the regional political council of United Russia, a longtime ally of Mikhail Men, at one time went with him to the Ivanovo region from the Moscow region. Sergei Pakhomov himself informed journalists that the candidacies of Mr. Men and Ms. Yakovleva for the short list were proposed by himself, and his candidacy, in order to maintain the chain of command, was proposed by the secretary of the presidium of the party’s general council, Vyacheslav Volodin, who in recent days managed to become head of the government apparatus and deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation. Thus, we can say with confidence that both reserve candidates were rather of a technical nature.
Five deputies of the regional Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction traditionally spoke out against the re-affirmation of Mr. Men. However, faction leader Natalya Kovaleva said that the communists are ready to cooperate with Mikhail Men.
The situation with the reappointment of Oleg Chirkunov seems a little more complicated, although, of course, the outcome of the vote in the regional parliament, controlled by United Russia, is beyond doubt. In addition to the current head of the region, United Russia members offered the president a list similar to Ivanov’s to choose from: the head of the regional branch of United Russia, Gennady Tushnolobov, and the State Duma deputy from the Penza region, head of the interregional coordination council of the Volga region, Igor Rudensky. Meanwhile, victims in the case of a fire in the Lame Horse club, which occurred in Perm a year ago and claimed the lives of 156 people, spoke out against Mr. Chirkunov’s candidacy. Another 64 people were seriously injured. An initiative group of victims appealed to the regional legislative assembly with a request not to approve the candidacy of Oleg Chirkunov for the post of governor of the region. The chances that parliamentarians will listen to this statement, and not to the opinion of President Medvedev, are indistinguishable from zero. However, there is still a small intrigue in the extraordinary meeting of the regional parliament scheduled for October 27: it has not yet been determined whether the vote on Mr. Chirkunov’s candidacy will be open or secret.
Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies Alexey Makarkin sees the secret of the reassignment of Messrs. For me and Chirkunov, first of all, the fact is that they served only one term as governors. “As a rule, a governor must outright fail in his first term in order not to be re-appointed for a second,” the expert notes. As an example of such “failed” people, he cited the ex-head of the Amur region Nikolai Kolesov, who worked in office for only a year and became famous during this time for equipping a fabulously expensive office with gold leaf, and the ex-head of the Irkutsk region Alexander Tishanin, who was forced to resign even before the end of the first term, in the midst of the reshuffles associated with the assumption of office by President Dmitry Medvedev in the spring of 2008. In contrast, the ex-governor of the Kaliningrad region Georgy Boos managed to calmly serve until the end of his term, but he was not re-appointed - scandalous protest rallies in the region played a significant role in this. Obviously, in comparison, the federal center did not consider the tragedy with human casualties in Perm to be a symptom of the failure of regional authorities.
“There were complaints against Boos as the head of the region who had not built relationships with society, but no such complaints arose against Chirkunov in connection with the fire in the Lame Horse,” notes Mr. Makarkin. -- The public was very emotional about the tragedy, but when the emotions subsided, questions remained mainly for the city authorities. Now there is a trial - the owners and managers are being accused.”
Not the least important role was played by the fact that the government of the Perm region pointedly resigned after the fire, as did Perm city manager Anatoly Katz. The government remained; Mr. Katz was removed from office a little later. Thus, administrative conclusions were made, but the governor was not personally affected.