Nikita Belykh

Nikita Yurevich Belykh Никита Юрьевич Белых
Governor of Kirov Oblast
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 January 2009
Preceded by	Nikolai Shaklein
Leader of the Union of Right Forces
In office 28 May 2005 – 26 September 2008
Preceded by	Viktor Nekrutenko
Succeeded by	Leonid Gozman (acting)
Personal details
Born	June 13, 1973 (1973-06-13) (age 38) Perm, Russian SFSR
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Union of Right Forces (2001-2008)

Nikita Yurevich Belykh (Russian: Ники́та Ю́рьевич Белы́х, born June 13, 1975 in Perm) is a Russian politician and former leader of the Union of Right Forces party. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Perm Krai (until December 11, 2008), and now is confirmed as governor of Kirov Oblast.

Nikita Belykh was born on 13 June 1975, graduated from Perm State University. In 1998 he became vice-president of the "Perm Financial-Industrial Group". In 2001 Belykh was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Oblast, where he became chairman of the committee on economic policy and taxation.

In December 2003 Nikita Belykh was a parliamentary candidate for the Union of Right Forces, which failed to pass the nationwide 5 per cent threshold required for entering the State Duma. In March 2004 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Perm Oblast.

On 28 May 2005 Nikita Belykh was elected leader of the Union of Right Forces, a leading democratic opposition party, succeeding Boris Nemtsov. He thereby resigned as Deputy Governor of Perm. As party leader Belykh adopted a line of strict opposition towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and launched coalition talks with Yabloko party.

As a result of the agreement between Nikita Belykh and Grigory Yavlinsky, reached in October 2005, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko formed a coalition, Yabloko-United Democrats, to contest the Moscow City Duma elections on December 4, 2005. The coalition won 11% of the vote and became one of only 3 parties (along with United Russia and the Communist Party) to enter the new Moscow legislature.

In December 2006 the Union of Right Forces received 16% of the vote in the regional legislative elections in Perm Krai. Belykh, who headed the party's list of candidates, was elected to the Legislative Assembly.

In September 2008 Belykh announced that he has resigned from his position and left the Union of Right Forces in connection with its likely upcoming merger with a couple of pro-Kremlin parties.

On December 8, 2008, Belykh was nominated governor of Kirov Oblast after personal meeting with Dmitry Medvedev.^[1][2] Many of Belykh's former colleagues such as Boris Nemtsov have sharply condemned Belykh's decision to take the President's offer and Maria Gaidar has declared that Belykh "has sold his soul to devil".^[3] (Since then, Maria Gaidar has become an official responsible for socio-economic development in the Kirov region.)

References

1. ^ J. Levy, Clifford (2008-12-23). "Russia’s Liberals Lose Their Voice". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/world/europe/24russia.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss. Retrieved 2009-03-15. 
2. ^ Badanin, Roman (2008-12-08). "С белого листа" (in Russian). gazeta.ru. http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2008/12/08_a_2907016.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-08. 
3. ^ "Oppositionist politician is new governor of Kirov Region". Russia Today. 2008-12-18. http://www.russiatoday.com/russian_news/news/34933. Retrieved 2008-12-20. 

External links

• (Russian) Nikita Belykh's official website
• Belykh's blog
• Nikita Belykh's blog posting leads to identity theft (RT article)

Persondata
Name	Belykh
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1973-06-13
Place of birth	Perm, Russian SFSR
Date of death
Place of death