Date: March 18, 2023 Time: 00:55:44
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the acting governor of the Smolensk region Vasily Anokhin via video conference. Photo: Mikhail Metzel/POOL/TASS
In one week, two governors lost their powers ahead of schedule. After the unexpected appointment of a new head of Chukotka, he also changed the leadership in the Smolensk region.
A presidential decree appeared on the Kremlin website:
“Accept the resignation of the Governor of the Smolensk Ostrovsky AV region at will. Appoint Anokhin Vasily Nikolaevich as acting governor.
Alexei Ostrovsky resigned from the post of governor of the Smolensk region. Photo: Vladimir Gerdo/TASS
The new governor was not one of the local elites, but a professional official at the federal level. True, with experience in this area. But Anokhin has not been in public office in recent years, there is not even a Wikipedia article about him. Although it is written about all more or less notable figures.
Even on the government website, Anokhin is mentioned in one line – simply the director of the Department of Regional Development.
Vasily Anokhin was born in 1983 in Moscow. He graduated from the Academy of Economic Security of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation. He worked in the Ministry of Economy. He worked as deputy governor of the Smolensk region, supervised the financial and economic sphere, land and property relations.
Since November 2018, he has worked in the secretariat of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, and since March 2020, he is the deputy head of the secretariat, Marat Khusnullin. In January 2021, he headed the Regional Development Department of the Government of the Russian Federation.
