GORKI, Moscow region, February 6 (Itar-Tass) —— The practice of appointing regional governors from the Kremlin has proved to have more cons than pros, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday as he met with the representatives of the Public Committee of Supporters.
During the period that the governors have been appointed to the constituent territories of Russia, the rank-and-file people started perceiving them as "direct projections of the Kremlin," he said.
"This viewpoint is justified in a way," Medvedev said. "On the other hand, a governor should be accountable to the people living in the region he governs."
He said he is confident that election of governors "will only do good to Russia."
"I realized at a certain moment that the officials in the regions who got the president's trust vested in them, look much more often at the federal authorities than at the people," Medvedev said.
Also, people in the regions "want to elect /the governors/," he said. "I meet with very different people and when I ask them, well, would you like to take part in the election of governors, they answer, yes we'd like to."