The governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Alexander Uss, may resign in the spring and not go to the next elections in 2023, three interlocutors close to the presidential administration told Vedomosti. Uss has been working in this position since 2017 – then the speaker of the regional legislative assembly replaced Viktor Tolokonsky, the former presidential envoy in the Siberian Federal District, as the acting, and then the governor of the Varangian from Novosibirsk.
As Vedomosti reported on February 3, the resignations of governors in 2023 will be targeted. The final decisions will be made based on the results of the Georating FOM survey: in February-March, sociologists will study the socio-economic and political situation in the regions, one of the sources of Vedomosti noted. Among the candidates “to exit” (in April-May), Vedomosti sources named the head of Chukotka, Roman Kopin, as well as communist Valentin Konovalov – who, however, according to one of the scenarios, may lose his post as a result of a competitive struggle with the candidate of the ruling party.
When Uss was appointed in 2017, experts noted that the 62-year-old Krasnoyarsk politician would easily join his new position and fulfill the main task of the federal center – he would hold the presidential elections in 2018 after regional and Duma elections that were not the most successful for the authorities. But the appointment of Uss in 2017 stood out against the general background: then the governors, who have serious political weight in the regions, were replaced first of all by the so-called young technocrats.
How did the Krasnoyarsk Territory change under Alexander Uss
Population: 2017 – 2.875 million people, 2023 – 2.849 million people (-0.9%);
unemployment: 2017 – 5.3%, 2022 – 2.4% (-2.9%);
average salary: 2017 – 40,929 rubles, 2023 – 68,538 rubles. (+21% in real terms);
industrial production: +0.2%.
The selection of these personnel was associated with the new (since autumn 2016) Kremlin curator of domestic politics, Sergei Kiriyenko. And Uss was already an experienced politician – for 20 years (since 1998) he led the legislative assembly, and headed it after his own electoral bloc “Ours” took a significant number of seats in the regional parliament. Unlike most of the appointees in 2017, Uss was not the first time he applied for the governor’s position. In 2002, he fought for the post of head of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but lost to Alexander Khloponin, who at that time headed the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug.
Uss himself told Kommersant after signing the presidential decree on the appointment of his interim that his “strategic goal is to bring the Krasnoyarsk Territory to a leadership position in Siberia.”
The Krasnoyarsk Territory has always been considered one of the most valuable regions of Russia due to its powerful industrial complex, the presence in the region of Norilsk Nickel, RUSAL, coal mining and oil companies, as well as the development of new projects by them, including Arctic projects, the vice president notes Center for Political Technologies Rostislav Turovsky. “The governor must understand and take into account the interests of economic giants,” the political scientist says.
Related: The resignations of governors this year will be targeted, and Roman Kopin is named among the candidates for exit
In addition, according to Vedomosti sources close to the presidential administration, Uss has low ratings. Turovsky notes that within large regions, “enormous internal contrasts” inevitably arise, given their size and the different needs of municipalities.
An interlocutor of Vedomosti, close to the embassy in the Siberian Federal District, said that it was too early to talk about Uss’ replacement.
Political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko, in his rating of the political stability of the heads of regions from those whose term of office ends in 2023, placed Kopin, Uss and Konovalov in the “red zone”. “Now more than two-thirds of the heads of regions are governors of the Kirienkov draft,” says Minchenko, and believes that regional leaders who have not passed the Kremlin’s “school of governors” face an additional risk. “For those who are in the red zone, the position has already been formed, but there are always surprises when the president can be asked to leave this or that person in his post,” he adds.