President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday appointed Alexander Dronov as acting governor of northwestern Russia’s Novgorod region, nearly a month after the previous governor stepped down from office.
Dronov, who used to serve as first deputy governor of the Novgorod region, succeeds Andrei Nikitin, who resigned on Feb. 7 to become Russia’s deputy transportation minister.
Nikitin is expected to oversee Russia’s drone production as it seeks to counter Ukraine’s battlefield advantage in unmanned aerial systems, according to sources cited by the business newspaper Vedomosti.
Dronov, 45, is a graduate of the Kremlin’s program for training governors, which is led by First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko.
His appointment comes ahead of gubernatorial elections in Novgorod and 17 other regions this coming September.
Analysts have noted a shift in the Kremlin’s approach to managing regional leaders, now favoring continuity over reshuffling.
“This practice suggests [Moscow] believes the team working in the region has sufficient potential for further growth and that no major overhaul is needed,” Konstantin Kostin, a former senior presidential administration official, told Vedomosti last month.
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