Valery Shantsev, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, was ranked tenth on the lust of most influential heads of the entities of the Russian Federation in May 2012.
The first place on the list was taken by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov was ranked second. His counterpart from Chechnya - Ramzan Radyrov - came third.
Valery Shantsev came before Viktor Basargin, the Perm region governor, and Rustam Khammitov - the President of Bashkortostan.
The research to find Russia's most influential governors was conducted by a closed survey. Eleven experts took part in the poll. They were scientists of politics and political technologies, media experts and journalists.
It is worthy of note that Valery Shantsev has recently stated that the amount of innovative products delivered to the Nizhny Novgorod region was evaluated at 92 million rubles. The amount marked a 20-percent increase in comparison with 2010. the export of innovative products of the region increased 1.8 times, he said. As many as 215 projects received grants in 2011 in the amount of nearly 110 million rubles, Shantsev said.