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Putin fires Novosibirsk governor, appoints former mayor acting governor

Former Novosibirsk Mayor Vladimir Gorodetsky will be Acting Governor until the new regional leader is elected

Vasily Yurchenko ITAR-TASS/Anatoly Strunin

Vasily Yurchenko

© ITAR-TASS/Anatoly Strunin

MOSCOW, March 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired Novosibirsk Governor Vasily Yurchenko because of the loss of trust, the Kremlin press service reported.

Former Novosibirsk Mayor Vladimir Gorodetsky will be Acting Governor until the new regional leader is elected.

Novosibirsk region is due to hold gubernatorial elections on September 14, which is Single Voting Day in Russia, Central Election Commission member Maia Grishina told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

"This issue is settled by federal legislation, the gubernatorial election is held on Single Voting Day in case of early termination of regional leader's powers," Grishina said.

Vasily Yurchenko has held posts in government bodies of the Novosibirsk region since 2004. He was Head of the Department of Industrial Development and Deputy Regional Governor. He has been Governor of the Novosibirsk region since 2010, upon the recommendation of the Russian president.

Vladimir Gorodetsky was born in 1948. He started his carrier in Novosibirsk in 1972, working at local municipal bodies of Novosibirsk and at Town Hall. In the 1990s, he was director of the town's cotton works. He worked in Town Hall from 1996 as supervisor of the Department for Industrial Policy.

From 2000 through 2013, he was elected Novosibirsk Mayor three times. On January 9, 2014, he was appointed Deputy Governor for the development of the Novosibirsk metropolitan area.

The dismissal of governor Vasily Yurchenko due "to the loss of president's trust" shows Vladimir Putin's serious intention to fight corruption, deputy parliament speaker, Secretary of United Russia’s General Council Sergei Neverov stated on Tuesday. He noted that this wording [the loss of trust] was only used in exceptional cases.

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