A Dagestani university professor has been named acting mayor of the republic's capital Makhachkala less than two weeks after its long-standing mayor, Said Amirov, was arrested on suspicion of organizing the murder of an investigator.
The decision to assign the role to Murtazali Rabadanov, 51, was announced by the republic's acting president, Ramazan Abdulatipov, on Instagram on Thursday.
Abdulatipov, who called Rabadanov a man with a "European education," said the choice was made after a lengthy review of a list of candidates.
The mayoral election for the city will be held in September.
He said that Rabadanov's main task would be modernizing the city's crumbling infrastructure and that "everything must be done openly and together with the citizens" of Makhachkala.
A qualified physicist, Rabadanov worked in various scientific institutions, including the Crystallography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, before assuming his position as rector of Dagestan State University.
Former Makhachkala Mayor Said Amirov, who had headed the republic's capital since 1989, was taken into custody and transported to Moscow at the start of June. He is to be detained for two months while the case against him is being investigated.
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