The Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region approved Igor Esipovsky as governor, 39 of 47 deputies voted for him. The decision ended the period of waiting and debate over possible candidates, and the LDPR, United Russia and A Just Russia factions supported the new regional head. Next is the inauguration, which will be held without special celebrations because of the difficult economic situation in the region.

At the end of last week, it became known that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had submitted the candidacy of Igor Yesipovsky to the legislative assembly of the Irkutsk Region for conferring upon him the powers of governor. On Saturday, his candidacy was approved by 39 of the 47 deputies present at the session.
The region’s tense period of waiting has come to an end. Not long ago, there was no shortage of speculation in the Angara region. For this post, they had also been considering Oleg Budarin, an aide to the presidential envoy in the Siberian Federal District, and the deputy governors of the Novosibirsk and Samara regions, Vasily Yurchenko and Ivan Mironov, as well as the chairman of the government of the Irkutsk Region, Sergei Sokol.
But on November 20, the situation was resolved - Dmitry Medvedev proposed entrusting the high post to Igor Yesipovsky, who was serving as acting head of the region.
This choice was supported by the LDPR, United Russia, and A Just Russia factions.
The Communists, however, opposed it. The First Secretary of the Irkutsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, State Duma deputy Sergei Levchenko, noted that the Irkutsk Region is now in a very difficult position and expressed doubts that the new governor would be able to change the situation for the better. However, the position of the five members of the CPRF faction could not affect the final results of the vote.
Igor Eduardovich Yesipovsky was born on March 28, 1960. He has two higher-education degrees: in economics and military command. He holds a Doctor of Economics degree. In the past, he headed the department of dual-use goods and technologies at Rosoboronexport and was the CEO of AvtoVAZ. In December 2007, he was elected to the State Duma from United Russia. Since April 15, 2008, he has been appointed acting governor of the Irkutsk Region (after the voluntary resignation of Alexander Tishanin).
The inauguration of the new head of the region will take place soon. Due to the difficult economic situation, no major celebrations are planned.