The head of Karelia announced his early resignation

The head of Karelia, Alexander Khudilainen, said that he had applied to President Vladimir Putin for early resignation, Interfax reports.

Khudilainen explained that "today a lot of work is being done on the rotation of personnel at the regional and federal levels" and he made a "considered, balanced" decision not to go to the upcoming elections for the head of the region, TASS adds.

Earlier, the media, citing sources, wrote that Artur Parfenchikov, head of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), could take his place.

Khudilainen has been in charge of Karelia since the spring of 2013. In February 2016, he was reprimanded by the president for disrupting a program to relocate residents from dilapidated housing.

Hudilainen is the fifth head of the region to step down since early 2017. Earlier, former Deputy Transport Minister Alexei Tsydenov replaced Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn as head of Buryatia, Moscow Mayor's Office official Maxim Reshetnikov became governor of the Perm Territory instead of Viktor Basargin, the former general director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives Andrei Nikitin was appointed governor of Novgorod instead of Sergei Mitin, and State Duma deputy Nikolai Lyubimov became governor of Ryazanskaya region instead of Oleg Kovalev. See February governorfall for details .