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Putin sacks Governor Furgal due to ‘loss of trust’

Furgal was detained in Khabarovsk on July 9, was transferred to Moscow and indicted on charges of organization of murders and attempted murders

© Alexei Druzhinin/Presidential press service/TASS

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order to dismiss Sergei Furgal from the office of Khabarovsk Region governor due to "loss of trust", the Kremlin press service said Monday, adding that Putin named Mikhail Degtyarev, Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) member from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, as interim governor for the region in the same order.

"To dismiss Sergei Furgal from the office of the Governor of the Khabarovsk Region due to loss of trust of the Russian President," the document reads. "To appoint Mikhail Degtyarev interim Governor of the Khabarovsk Region before a person elected as the Governor of the Khabarovsk Region assumes the office."

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Khabarovsk Region governor charged with organizing murders - Investigative Committee

Earlier, Putin held a video conference with Degtyarev, he agreed to head the region. "I thank you for the trust you put in me. I am ready to leave for the Khabarovsk Region immediately," he told the Russian leader, saying that he will report back to Putin about the state of affairs in the region in a month’s time.

Furgal was detained in Khabarovsk on July 9, was transferred to Moscow and indicted on charges of organization of murders and attempted murders. Moscow’s Basmanny Court put him in custody until September 9. According to Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, the man masterminded the killings of businessmen committed and attempted by a criminal group in the Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur Region back in 2004-2005. Those accused of committing these crimes, as well as witnesses and the aggrieved parties testified against him. Furgal’s four presumable accomplices, Nikolai Mistryukov, a member of the Khabarovsk territorial legislature, Dalpromsnab Co. director and Furgal’s former partner, Marat Kadyrov, security inspector at Yuzhno-Kurilsk’s airport, Andrei Karepov, an unemployed, and Andrei Paley, Alteza Co director general, were arrested in November 2019.

According to a source in law enforcement agencies, Furgal organized an assassination attempt on a businessman and the murder of his two business rivals, Yevgeny Zorya, who was shot and killed in 2004, and Oleg Bulatov, who was shot dead in 2005.

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