Two candidates are vying for the governor of Irkutsk Oblast.

The media reported the first contenders for governor of Irkutsk region, vacant after Igor Esipovsky died in a plane crash. Possible candidates include deputy envoy Oleg Budargin and acting regional head Sergei Sokol, backed by local United Russia members and envoy Anatoly Kvashnin. The president may also propose another candidate not named here.

In the media, the names of the first contenders for the post of governor of the Irkutsk region, “vacated” after the death of the head of the Angara region, Igor Yesipovsky, in an air crash on May 10, have appeared.
The presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District, Anatoly Kvashnin, was due this Friday, May 22, to present to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev candidates for the post of governor of the Irkutsk region. They are his deputy Oleg Budargin and the acting head of the region, Sergei Sokol, whom, as Kommersant writes, are supported by Irkutsk United Russia members.
The former governor, Igor Yesipovsky, died in an air crash on May 10. Within 30 days, the president must decide who will become governor and propose his candidate for approval by deputies of the region’s legislative assembly.
As the publication notes, both candidates, at Kvashnin’s suggestion, have already been nominated several times for governorships in different regions.
According to a source at the newspaper close to the envoy, Kvashnin is betting specifically on Sergei Sokol, with whom he has friendly relations. According to the source, the head of Rostekhnologii, Sergei Chemezov, who at one time lobbied for Yesipovsky’s appointment, also approved this candidacy.
Yesipovsky invited Sokol to the post of first deputy governor in April last year from the administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The second candidate for the governor’s seat, deputy envoy Oleg Budargin, also a native of Krasnoyarsk Krai, has been in the envoy’s personnel reserve since the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug, which he headed, ceased to exist in 2007.
At the same time, there is a possibility that the governor of the region will be someone not mentioned among the persons proposed by Kvashnin. The existence of such a scenario was confirmed, in particular, to the newspaper by Sergei Kurilov, a member of the presidium of United Russia.