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Kremlin: Russia's Central Election Commission chief leaves in ‘natural rotation’

According to Vladimir Putin's press secretary, the new presidential list of tRussia's Central Election Commission members has people of different views on it,

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The head of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC), Vladimir Churov, is leaving in what is natural rotation, the new presidential list of CEC members has people of different views on it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"This is the choice of the head of state," he said in reply to the question why Churov was not on the list. "There are also rotation factors in it, it is an absolutely natural rotation process," Peskov said.

"The political spectrum of presidential appointees to the CEC is rather wide, including representatives from non-parliamentary parties and parliamentary factions with a broad variety of political views, with a very rich experience in different sectors," the spokesman said.

"Let us wait for a while until it becomes clear who will head the Central Election Commission," he went on, declining to comment on whether a new state job would be offered to Churov.

"In this case you will learn it. You know perfectly well that we don’t announce this," he said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on members of Russia’s Central Election Commission, thus appointing five of the total 15 CEC members. The current CEC head Vladimir Churov is not in the presidential quota.

As the Kremlin’s press-service has said, in connection with the expiration of the CEC’s powers Putin decided to appoint to seats on a new election commission Russia’s human rights ombudsman

  • Russia’s human rights ombudsman Ella Pamfilova; 
  • CEC member Boris Ebzeyev; 
  • Communist State Duma member Vasily Likhachev;
  • deputy head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service FAS Alexandr Kinev; 
  • Patriots of Russia’s representative in the CEC Yevgeny Shevchenko.

The Central Election commission is formed for a period of five years. Five of its members are appointed by the State Duma (the lower house of parliament), five by the Federation Council (upper house) and another five, by the Russian president. The powers of the current CEC will expire on March 27.