Penza, 30 July 2012. PenzaNews. In the second quarter of 2012, the governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev took the 18th place in information openness rating of heads of the regions, made by “Institute of Independent Political Researches” together with “National Service of Monitoring.” The survey was made among the regional media in 83 regions of the country.

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According to the rating, Vasily Bochkarev scored 8 points, which is 0.17 points less than in the first quarter of 2012. However, he retained A category, which is awarded to the heads of regions who are the most open in terms of information.

According to regional media, the governor of the Tyumen region Vladimir Yakushev, the head of the Novgorod region Sergey Mitin and president of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov became leaders of the ranking.

Outsiders of the ranking are the governor of the Amur region Oleg Kozhemyako, the head of the Oryol region Alexander Kozlov, the head of the Tver region Andrey Shevelev, the head of the Volgograd region Sergey Bozhenov and the governor of the Bryansk region Nikolay Denin.

As the head of “Institute of Independent Political Researches” Alexander Ulitin told news agency “PenzaNews,” increase in the average assessment of regional leaders can be due to the fact that for the majority of them information transparency is no longer an abstract concept – it became valuable especially in terms of direct elections.

“The governors of Russia can be divided into two main camps. On the one hand, there are supporters of “vertical relationship” with the media when the press service creates obstacles for the opposition media, and on the other hand, there are adherents of “horizontal relationship” with the media when journalists (even oppositional) have the opportunity to ask the governor any question, often sidestepping the press service. And the number of supporters of the second approach is increasing,” said Alexander Ulitin.