Connect with us

International

Four Russian govs resign as war-induced sanctions bite

Published

on

Russia announces third worse Covid-19 death toll in the world

Four prominent Russian governors on Tuesday resigned from their positions as the country continues to feel the impact of worldwide economic sanctions imposed by the West following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by its security forces.

The affected governors who are regional leaders of Tomsk, Saratov, Kirov and Mari El regions, all announced their immediate exit from office, while the head of Ryazan region said he would not run for another term with elections scheduled to take place in all five regions in September.

Though Russian governors are elected, they are politically subordinate to the Kremlin and several of the outgoing governors represent regions where the ruling bloc United Russia recorded low votes in last year’s parliamentary elections.

READ ALSO: 226 children killed by Russian troops in Ukraine —Prosecutor General

Unpopular governors are regularly removed from office, often submitting their resignations in clusters in the spring months.

The head of the Centre for the Development of Regional Politics think tank in Moscow, Ilya Grashchenkov, said the resignation of the governors was masterminded by the Kremlin.

“There’s a need to restructure the economy, especially in those regions where Western economic influence had been significant. These governors need to be replaced by younger alternatives,” he said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

18 − eight =