MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday named a new acting governor to head Russia’s Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk after the previous regional head was arrested on murder charges earlier this month, sparking a wave of protests.
At least 10,000 people demonstrated in Khabarovsk on Saturday to demand Moscow release Sergei Furgal, a member of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) who won election in 2018 after beating a rival from the ruling pro-Putin party.
Putin on Monday formally removed Furgal from his post and appointed Mikhail Degtyaryov, another LDPR member, to step in as the acting head of the region, according to a decree published on the Kremlin website.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Ttrault-Farber; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Osborn)
