Medvedev’s Reorganization of the Regions

Brian Whitmore at the Power Vertical is blogging on Medvedev’s firing of two governors in energy-rich Siberian territories.  Other appointments may be on the way:

So who else’s job is in jeopardy? Two Russian think tanks, the International Institute for Political Expertise and the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, have ranked the relative vulnerability of the country’s regional leaders.

Two provincial barons scored a “one,” meaning most vulnerable: Chelyabinsk Governor Pyotr Sumin and Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov.

Seven others scored a slightly less vulnerable rank of “two,” including Neyelov of Yamal-Nenets, who just stepped down. Others on the endangered list include Governor Sergei Antufev of Smolensk, Georgy Boos of Kaliningrad, Boris Gromov of Moscow Oblast, Aleksandr Mikhailov of Kursk, Aleksei Chernyshov of Orenburg,  and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.