Smolensk region headed Ostrovsky

The Smolensk Regional Duma unanimously approved the State Duma deputy from the LDPR Alexei Ostrovsky as the head of the region, RIA Novosti reports. The candidacy of the 36-year-old Ostrovsky for the post of governor President Dmitry Medvedev contributed the day before.

Last Friday, Medvedev accepted the resignation of the governor of the Smolensk region Sergei Antufev. Ostrovsky was appointed temporarily acting the governor. In the State Duma, he headed the Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations.

Among the applicants for the post of head of the Smolensk region, who were presented to the president by the United Russia party, were also the deputy industry director of Rosenergoatom OJSC Andrei Petrov and the head of the Main Directorate of the Central Bank Mikhail Chikhunov.

Ostrovsky became the second member of the LPDR in history as the governor after Evgeny Mikhailov, who won elections in the Pskov region in 1996. Mikhailov later left the party. As the presidential spokesman Natalya Timakova explained last week, Ostrovsky was in the president’s personnel reserve. "LDPR, although it is an opposition party, has proved its ability to constructive dialogue, including on state construction issues," Timakova said.

Antufiev resigned of his own free will. Earlier it was reported that in the fall he will take part in the popular elections of the governor, but now the elections are postponed in connection with the early shift of the head of the region.

According to Kommersant , in the near future the governors of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions may resign, which have little chance of winning direct elections in their regions. For this reason, the head of the Kostroma head Igor Slyunyaev left his post ahead of schedule, and before him - the Murmansk governor Dmitry Dmitrienko.

In the elections to the State Duma in December last year, United Russia gained 36 percent of the vote in the Smolensk region. Back in March 2009, the party issued Antufiev a warning about the unconvincing results of the regional elections. The former head of the region Viktor Maslov was forced to leave the post ahead of schedule, after United Russia in the State Duma elections in 2007 showed one of the worst results - 53.9 percent.