Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov, one of the last regional political heavyweights, ended his 17-year reign by abruptly resigning late Thursday, the same day that lawmakers granted him a $24,500-a-month pension.
The Kremlin said Rakhimov, 76, "voluntarily" resigned during a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, who appointed RusHydro deputy CEO Rustem Khamitov as acting president.
Medvedev praised Rakhimov in televised remarks for his "fruitful service" and awarded him with the Order of Merit to the Fatherland in the first degree.
“Bashkortostan has progressed for a long time under your leadership, and now it is a mostly well-developed republic with high living standards,” Medvedev said at the meeting at his residence in Sochi, Interfax reported.
The pill was further sweetened by a regional legislative act allowing the ex-president to collect a pension of 750,000 rubles ($24,500) a month and guaranteeing medical insurance for his family even after his death.
The bill was passed by Bashkortostan's legislature in all three required readings Thursday, the RBC Daily web site reported. But the bill mentions no immunity from prosecution, which earlier reports said would also be granted to Rakhimov.
Rakhimov's term in office was to expire in October 2011, but he announced this week that he would not seek reappointment and began successor talks with the Kremlin.
The resignation marks the end of a Kremlin campaign that started back in 2003, said Nikolai Petrov, a regional policy analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. “The situation was reminiscent of swings on the playground, with the Kremlin attacking and Rakhimov striking back,” he said.
Petrov said it remained unclear who would ultimately replace Rakhimov, but the acting president looked like a well thought-out choice because he has worked both in Bashkortostan and on the federal level.
“Khamitov is a character that both the Kremlin and Rakhimov are equally happy with,” Petrov said.
Khamitov worked in Bashkortostan's government in the 1990s and was the presidential envoy's representative to the republic from 2000 to 2003. He worked in the Federal Tax Service from 2003 to 2009.
Medvedev's campaign to replace long-serving regional leaders with new blood has led to many bowing out over the past year, including Tatarstan President Mintemir Shaimiyev.
Mayor Yury Luzhkov remains the only high-profile veteran leader still in office. His current, fourth term expires next year.