His conflict with the head of the republic ended in resignation

The resignation of the prosecutor of Khakassia Viktor Lomakin ended his confrontation with the leadership of the republic. Experts note the strengthening of the position of the head of the region, Viktor Zimin: the Kremlin rarely sides with local authorities in the event of conflicts with the security forces.

According to the official website of the Kremlin, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree on the resignation of the prosecutor of Khakassia, 62-year-old Viktor Lomakin, on July 4. The reason for dismissal is not indicated in the document. The republic's prosecutor's office reported yesterday that the head of the department was "retiring for a well-deserved rest." It was not possible to obtain clarification from Viktor Lomakin himself; he was unavailable for communication. This year, the prosecutor has repeatedly publicly stated that his term of office ends in only two years and he intends to finish it completely. Mr. Lomakin was appointed Khakass prosecutor in February 2012.

The head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, apparently knew about his upcoming resignation. Back in June, commenting on the fact that criminal cases had been initiated against members of the republican government, he pointedly called Viktor Lomakin a “former prosecutor.” Previously, Mr. Zimin publicly noted that the authorities did not have a good relationship with the leadership of the republican prosecutor’s office. “Unfortunately, the activities of the supervisory authority often negatively affected the development of the region’s economy,” Olga Kolesnikova, press secretary of the head of Khakassia, quotes him as saying. Yesterday, Mr. Zimin, at a meeting in the republican government, recalled that the prosecutor’s office, after the April forest fires, inundated Khakassian municipalities with a huge number of requests.

As Kommersant reported, in April the heads of most municipalities of the republic sent Vladimir Putin a complaint against the prosecutor’s office. The activities of the supervisory authority were characterized in an open letter as “sabotage.” The mayors of all major cities, with the exception of Abakan, asked the president to “exert influence” on prosecutor Lomakin.

Relations between the Khakass authorities and the republic's prosecutor's office became even more complicated after the initiation of criminal cases against a number of high-ranking officials of the local government. The head of the Ministry of Finance Semyon Aeshin, the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Sergei Novikov, the chairman of the State Committee on Tariffs and Energy Oleg Baziev and the former first deputy head of the republic Alexander Golyshev came under suspicion. Then the Khakass government called the appearance of criminal cases a “personal order” of Viktor Lomakin.

“The Russian authorities have decided to extend the age limit for senior positions in the prosecutor’s office to 70 years. Viktor Lomakin did not achieve it, his contract expires only in two years, and at the same time the person leaves the service - probably a forced decision, an obvious victory for Viktor Zimin,” says political scientist Sergei Komaritsyn. The head of the “Political Expert Group” Konstantin Kalachev calls a unique situation when “a governor, obviously not one of the political heavyweights, seeks the resignation of the head of the law enforcement agency, that is, one of the people who are considered untouchable in the modern Russian model of government.” In his assessment, this indicates the strengthening of the influence of Viktor Zimin, who “not only lost nothing from the situation with the fires, but even gained.” At the same time, Mr. Kalachev predicts a decrease in the activity of law enforcement agencies in relation to the government of the republic: “The conflict has been resolved, and, most likely, political patrons in the Kremlin will remove the governor from under attack.”

Dmitry Malkov, Krasnoyarsk

The prosecutor of Khakassia left ahead of schedule