Moving away from the core ethnic groups” and a judge from Kiriyenko’s turf. Putin replaced the head of Dagestan in a unique way

“Moving away from the core ethnic groups” and a judge from Kiriyenko’s turf. Putin replaced the head of Dagestan in a unique way

Vladimir Putin dismissed Dagestan head Sergei Melikov and recommended electing Fyodor Shchukin, a native of Nizhny Novgorod region and a judge, to lead the republic, and appointing Magomed Ramazanov, deputy envoy to the Far East, as prime minister. This personnel decision was carried out in a unique way, political scientist Alexander Kynev told Verstka.

Putin announced Melikov’s resignation at a personal meeting with parliamentarians from Dagestan after visiting the “Knowledge. Results” exhibition at the Manege in central Moscow. Usually, the Kremlin announces the resignation of regional heads either by publishing the relevant presidential decree or with a short video from Putin’s meeting with the new head of the region.

Such a ritual in Melikov’s case is tied to the fact that the situation in Dagestan is seen as “dangerous and tense,” Kynev believes.

“For that reason, this ritual story with the meeting was staged so that the region’s representatives themselves would present the candidates and Putin would back them. The maximum number of pirouettes and curtsies was made, emphasizing respect for the republican elites. Usually a decree is simply signed and everyone is presented with a fait accompli,” Kynev noted. “Besides, Melikov is a figure of status; he was seen off with maximum honor, and the president’s own words made clear that this was not a disgrace but a transfer to another job.”

The proposal of a candidate for the republic’s prime minister also turned out to be unusual. Under the law, it is the head of Dagestan who may present that person to deputies, and the People’s Assembly that approves them. Neither federal agencies nor the president of the Russian Federation officially appear in this scheme.

Behind the scenes, such high-ranking officials are obligatorily vetted by the Domestic Policy Directorate of the presidential administration and checked by the FSB, but this is never publicized and is not formalized in public documents, several sources in regional administrations told Verstka.

For a long time, Dagestan had a concept of alternately appointing as head a representative of one of the two major ethnic groups, the Avars and the Dargins.

“Shchukin’s appointment will already be the third attempt to move away from appointing members of the core ethnic groups, either a minority representative (Melikov, a Lezgin) or an outsider (Vladimir Vasilyev, who held the post of head of Dagestan in 2018-2020). The idea is to take the post of regional head out of the field of interethnic competition. In my view, this is a sensible position: he does not belong to any of the ethnic groupings,” Kynev concludes.

Shchukin arrived in Makhachkala and headed the local supreme court only in 2024; before that, his career had been entirely tied to Nizhny Novgorod region. This Volga region is considered the “turf” of domestic policy curator and first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko, and it is run by one of his key protégés, Gleb Nikitin.

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