Governor of the Stavropol Territory Valery Gayevsky may be dismissed, although his terms of office end in May 2013, Vedomosti reports.
54-year old Gayevsky was the first one of the first people to be appointed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He was a close friend of Vice Premier Dmitry Kozak, was a deputy presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District and Ministry for Regional Development.
Gayevsky’s predecessor Alexander Chernogorov had political problems in 2007. MP Mikhail Markelov, supervisor of the department for domestic policy in 2009-2011, called him an excellent economic executive. Gayevsky has problems with ethnic conflicts, especially Dagestani people, he closed the regional youth committee, holds the Mashuk summer camp. Five governors have been dismissed over corruption.
The main problem in the region is the threats of a hunger strike by Lermontov officials. Gayevsky has problems with Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasian Federal District. The hunger strike, accusations of bribery by Igor Bestuzhev are some of the reasons.
Vedomosti believes that Gayevsky’s replacers are lawmakers of the Stavropol Territory Yuri Em or Andrey Murgu. Em was the second in the United Russia list after Vice Premier Igor Sechin. He got the Hero of Russia Award for counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus in 2000 and became Vice Premier of Chechnya, then the Chief Inspector of the South Caucasus Federal District, a military commissar of the Kaluzhskaya, then Ulyanovskaya Regions, then the Stavropol Territory.
Murga headed the Trade and Industry Chamber of the region and joined United Russia, political analyst Vasily Krasul says. Businessmen hope that the region will be governed by Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko.
Other candidates are Deputy Plenipotentiary Envoys of the North Caucasus Maxim Bystrov and Yuri Oleynikov.
