You're reading: Kremlin picks veteran minister to head key region

MOSCOW - Russia's president picked a popular minister known for his loyalty to the ruling camp as head of a major region surrounding Moscow on April 4, in an apparent bid to bolster the Kremlin's control before a new law on local elections goes into force.

Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu, 56, has held his post since 1994 and is one of Russia’s most popular ministers. He is also one of the founders of the ruling United Russia party.

In his new role as governor of the Moscow region which surrounds but does not include the capital city itself, Shoigu replaces Boris Gromov – a general who led the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.

The region, home to 6.8 million people, accounts for 5 percent of gross domestic product. It is also heavily indebted, standing for one-fifth of the total regional domestic debt.

"The region is big and interesting. I will not be bored," Shoigu was quoted as saying after being nominated for the post by the United Russia party.

Medvedev has appointed several heads of major regions while parliament ponders over new legislation re-introducing direct gubernatorial polls – one of the few concessions the Kremlin agreed to make following a wave of opposition protests.

The newly appointed governors are now expected to serve through their five-year terms, effectively cutting off the opposition from running for office in some of Russia’s richest and most populous regions any time soon.

"They are offering us a dead cat instead of a more interesting animal," Gennady Gudkov, a member of Just Russia party and one of the organisers of recent anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow over alleged election fraud.

MOSCOW REGION

Gromov is stepping down amid widespread allegations of corruption in the region which hosts luxury country homes of the Russian elite. It is the biggest, and the fastest growing, real estate market in Russia.

Gromov had run the province since 2000, the year Vladimir Putin became Russian president after winning an election over a Communist rival by a narrow margin.

Opposition activist Evgeniya Chirikova, who has spearheaded a relentless campaign against construction of a highway through a Moscow region forest, called on her supporters to demand direct elections at a protest near the Kremlin on April 8.

"People should elect their governor themselves," Chirikova told Reuters.

Putin has long been alarmed by the growing independence of regional governors, some of whom have turned their provinces into personal fiefdoms and openly snubbed Moscow.

He abolished direct elections in 2004, arguing the move would help prevent criminals from penetrating the executive branch. But, faced with opposition pressure following a disputed parliamentary vote in December 2011, Putin agreed to restore direction polls in the hope that would help take the steam off the protest movement.