Russian Vologda region's governor resigns over lack of trust

The Governor of Russia’s Vologda region Vyacheslav Pozgalev wrote on his Twitter account on Monday that he had filed for resignation to President Dmitry Medvedev because of a lack of the people’s trust. “I have filed a resignation petition to the president. I consider it impossible to run the region with such a level of distrust,” Pozgalev said, referring to the dramatically low level of support (33.4 percent) of the United Russia party in the Vologda region. The governor’s press service confirmed that Pozgalev had posted the tweet about his resignation request but refused to comment on the issue. Soon after the parliamentary elections, held on December 4, Medvedev warned that measures would be taken against those governors whose regions had not scored a large share of the votes for the ruling party, United Russia. The party gained less than 35 percent of votes in fifteen Russian regions and saw its share of the vote fall sharply in Sunday’s polls. In the rest of Russia it just managed to hang onto its parliamentary majority but opposition activists claim the party's real figures were much lower.