Sverdlovsk governor resigned of his own free will

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the early termination of the powers of the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Alexander Misharin, and appointed Evgeny Kuyvashev, who previously held the post of plenipotentiary representative in the Ural Federal District, as acting head of the region.

Today, an appeal to residents of the Sverdlovsk region was published on Misharin’s official website, in which it was reported that his voluntary resignation was connected with the governor’s transition to a new position: “Today, May 14, I decided to resign from the post of governor of the Sverdlovsk region and signed a corresponding statement addressed to the President of the Russian Federation. And the basis of such a decision is precisely the proposal to continue work in the federal project, in the interests of the development of our state as a whole.”

On December 1, 2011, Alexander Misharin was involved in a traffic accident , as a result of which one person died and several were seriously injured. After this, the governor underwent treatment in Germany. There were reports in the media that he was planning to submit his resignation. However, the administration of the Sverdlovsk region denied these rumors. Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree according to which Misharin resumed his duties in early February.

In May, Medvedev signed a law that returned direct elections of regional heads to the Russian Federation. The law comes into force on June 1, 2012, and the first elections under the new law will take place on the second Sunday of October 2012.

Over the past 5 months, several dozen gubernatorial resignations have followed, which began after the December Duma elections. Some governors left of their own free will. Governor Boris Gromov of the Moscow region, Viktor Kress of Tomsk, and Leonid Polezhaev of Omsk were not extended their powers. In May, the heads of Stavropol Territory Valery Gaevsky, Mordovia Nikolay Merkushkin, Samara Region Vladimir Artyakov, and Leningrad Region Valery Serdyukov left their offices.