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The governor of Russia’s Nenets Autonomous District, Yury Bezdudny, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down ahead of the region’s indirect gubernatorial elections later this year.
Bezdudny was among five governors expected to be replaced ahead of September’s regional elections, the Vedomosti business newspaper reported last week.
“New work awaits me… I wish the tundra region development and prosperity,” Bezdudny, a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, said in a short video address.
As of Thursday afternoon, a presidential decree confirming Bezdudny’s resignation had not been published.
Nenets, Russia’s least populous region with just 44,000 residents, was the only region to oppose the 2020 constitutional reforms that allowed President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule until 2036. It also handed Putin his lowest re-election margin last year, with 79% of the vote.
Putin appointed Bezdudny as acting governor in April 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was formally elected by the regional legislature that September under Russia’s indirect election system.
Early in his tenure, Bezdudny pushed for a merger with the neighboring Arkhangelsk region, but the initiative was overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum that also saw Nenets residents vote against Putin’s constitutional reforms.
