REGIONAL GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS: TAIMYR. THE KREMILIN BETS ON KHLOPONIN

The newspaper Financial Times Deutschland circulating in Germany has published an article by Andrei Rybak submitted from Moscow. In particular, the article says the following. “Over the last 5 weeks, gubernatorial elections have been held in 10 out of Russia’s 89 regions. In 9 cases, candidates backed by the Kremlin have won.” Now, it is clear why Gennadi Nedelin. the incumbent governor of the Taimyr Autonomous District, is so keen to meet with someone in the presidential administration. Elections in the district are scheduled for late-January, and Mr. Nedelin may have a young and vigorous oligarch, Aleksandr Khloponin who is the RAO Norilsk Nikel’s director general, as his rival. Pravda.ru has learned from the sources close to the presidential administration that Mr. Nedelin’s painstaking attempts to have an audience with someone from the Kremlin proved futile. The governor was let to know that the Kremlin put its bet on Mr. Khloponin. A confirmation thereof may be drawn from the format of Mr. Khloponin’s and Mr. Nedelin’s participation in the conference devoted to the prospects of the Siberian Federal District held the other day in Novosivirsk attended also by President Putin. True, Mr. Nedelin was invited. But it was Mr. Khloponin who actually addressed the President and all the Siberian Establishement.