President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed the governor of the western Bryansk region, Nikolai Denin, citing a lack of trust in the official.
State Duma deputy Alexander Bogomaz has been appointed to take Denin's place until a new governor is elected, according to a statement on the Kremlin's website.
Denin was appointed governor in 2004. He was relieved of his duties due to a conflict of interest uncovered by the presidential council to combat corruption, according to Interfax, which cited an unidentified source in the Kremlin. The report did not elaborate on the alleged conflict of interest.
Denin said in comments to RIA Novosti that he was not surprised by his dismissal, since rumors about it had been circulating in the media since the spring. Now, he said, he plans to "rest a bit."
In a meeting with Putin on Tuesday, Bogomaz said he intended to begin his term as acting governor by focusing on the assets of the Bryansk region, the main one being farming.
Bogomaz, an engineer by trade and a Bryansk native, specialized in agriculture in the region before being elected to the Duma in 2011.
"At first I was a deputy of the village, then of the district, and then a deputy of the regional duma in a single-mandate district, and in 2011 the People's Front [pro-Kremlin organization] nominated me [for the State Duma]," Bogomaz was cited as saying in a transcript on the Kremlin's website.
