Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the heads of three regions in one evening - the Astrakhan region, Kabardino-Balkaria and Primorsky Krai.

The first to be appointed was the governor of the Astrakhan region. Sergei Morozov, deputy head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS), who previously was an assistant to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and an employee of the Federal Security Service (FSO), became the acting head of the region. He replaced Alexander Zhilkin, who headed the region for 14 years. Putin, in a conversation with Morozov, noted that Zhilkin asked “to be transferred to another place of work.”

Next, Putin held a meeting with Kazbek Kokov and announced to him the decision to appoint him acting head of Kabardino-Balkaria. The President noted that the Kokov family is connected with the republic “in the closest, most intimate way.”

Kokov previously held positions as deputy minister, deputy of the people's assembly of Kabardino-Balkaria, and then moved to the presidential administration. As Kommersant wrote in April 2013, Kokov became an adviser to one of the departments of the presidential administration on domestic policy. He is the son of Valery Kokov, who was the president of Kabardino-Balkaria from 1992 to 2005, and the namesake of Yuri Kokov, who headed the region since October 2014. The latter, according to Putin, asked to be transferred “for a number of reasons, including a family nature,” to work in Moscow.

After this, Putin met with the governor of the Sakhalin region Oleg Kozhemyako and invited him to become the acting head of Primorye, TASS reports . In a conversation with him, the president noted his great and positive experience. Kozhemyako previously headed the Amur region and the now defunct Koryakia region. In 2015, he became governor of the Sakhalin region instead of Alexander Khoroshavin, who was fired due to loss of confidence due to corruption.

In the Primorsky Territory, two rounds of gubernatorial elections were held this month, in which United Russia member Andrei Tarasenko, who headed the region at that time, and communist Andrei Ishchenko competed. The regional election commission canceled the voting results on the recommendation of the Central Election Commission: the will of citizens could not be determined due to numerous violations - candidates accused each other of rewriting ballots and bribing voters.

Putin fired three governors within an hour of election scandal