Translated material
Samara Governor Merkushkin was dismissed
Vladimir Putin prematurely resigned the governor of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin. This was reported on the Kremlin website. The official filed a resignation of his own free will.
I.O. Governor Putin appointed a member of the Council, former mayor of Samara Dmitry Azarov.
Meanwhile, Merkushkin took the post of special representative of Putin in interaction with the World Congress of Finno-Ugric peoples. As RBC notes , "nothing was known about such a position before."
This publication was reported to the Kremlin’s plans to send Merkushkin last week. It was claimed that such a measure is planned as part of the autumn permutations in the Governor's Corps. In total, RBC sources close to the Kremlin said, up to a dozen heads of regions can be replaced.
It was also reported that Merkushkin wanted to take off the post in the spring, but then there was no compromise figure in his place.
The upcoming resignation of the Samara governor was explained by him with a conflict with Rostec General Director Sergei Chemezov. Rostec has a share in the company Alliance Rostec Auto BV - the holder of the control package of AvtoVAZ shares, one of the largest enterprises of the region. It was claimed that one of the reasons for the conflict was that Merkushkin "threw Chemezov’s people from the electoral lists of" United Russia "and stuffed his own."
Another source of RBC, close to the regional administration, reported that the governor’s resignation was accelerated by the situation with the Samara-Arena stadium, which is being built for the 2018 World Cup. Merkushkin requested additional funding for the construction of the facility, the interlocutor of the publication explained.
Merkushkin is 66 years old. Since 1995, he was the head of Mordovia. In May 2012, immediately after the start of the current presidential term of Putin, he was dismissed in the second year of the fifth cadence and was approved two days later on the post of Samara governor. In September 2014, he remained in this post already following the results of the elections.
Azarov is 47 years old. He was a top manager of a number of production enterprises of the region, then worked in the city and regional administrations. In 2010-2014, the mayor of Samara, since 2014-a member of the Council from the Samara Provincial Duma.
According to RBC, Azarov is a compromise that arranges various Kremlin groups. On Monday, the official met both Putin and his envoy in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich.