Page 74 - bneIntelliNews monthly country report Russia May 2024

started. However, since the President will have to appoint a new government in May, it wouldn’t be surprising if at least some changes took place at the helms of the regions too. One leader on shaky grounds is Orenburg’s governor Denis Pasler, who could be sacked due to the mismanagement of floods, while several others could expect an appointment to the federal government.
Over the past few days, the Tomsk, Kurgan, Orenburg, and Tyumen Regions have been massively affected by regional flooding. Dozens of houses and districts remain without access to basic utilities in other regions as well, including in Orsk in the Orenburg Region, where a dam burst almost two weeks ago. More than 30 regions are facing various degrees of flooding. Irek Faizullin, the federal government’s Minister for Construction, reported the damages and the situation to Putin on Wednesday. In the Tomsk and Kurgan Regions, local authorities started evacuations from the affected territories. A state of emergency was introduced in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, as well as in certain towns and districts of the Tyumen and Kurgan Regions.
On April 18, a court in Bashkortostan rejected the appeal of Fail Alsynov, a jailed opposition activist whose sentencing triggered massive protests last January. In addition to upholding the four-year jail sentence, the court also banned Alsynov from administering websites or participating in mass events. The authorities have launched court cases against dozens of participants in pro-Alsynov protests. This week, the human rights organisation Memorial recognised the Bashkir activist Ramil Saitov as a political prisoner. Saitov was sentenced to five years in prison for calling on mobilised soldiers not to kill Ukrainians. The deputy leader of Memorial, Oleg Orlov, is himself a political prisoner. This week he was abruptly transferred to the Samara Region, thousands of kilometres from his family, pending his appeal.
6.1.4 Budget dynamics - National Projects
74 RUSSIA Country Report May 2024 www.intellinews.com