The position of Valery Shantsev, the governor of Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, improved considerably in April 2012 on the list of most influential leaders of the entities of the Russian Federation.
The rating was made by the agency for political and economic communications. According to Vremya N, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region improved his position in April having climbed two positions up - from the 9th to the 7th place. The authors of the rating said that "experts positively estimated the indexes of the economic development of the region."
Nizhny Novgorod governor Valery Shantsev followed such leaders as Sergei Sobyanin - the Mayor of Moscow, who traditionally took the first place on the list, as well as the heads of national republics Rustam Minnikhanov (2nd) and Ramzan Kadyrov (3rd), Moscow region governor Sergei Shoigu (4th), St. Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko (5th) and Krasnodar region governor Alexander Tkachev (6th).
The expert research, which became the basis for the rating of most influential governors in Russia, is conducted by means of closed questionnaires. Eleven experts took part in the research in April 2012: scientists of politics and political technologies, media experts and journalists.