Penza, 3 December 2014. PenzaNews. The Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev was rated 2+ out of 5 in the 14th political survivability rating among the heads of Russian regions by the fund “Petersburg Politics” and Minchenko Consulting communication holding on Wednesday, December 3.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

According to the explanatory note, Vasily Bochkarev, formerly rated 4, is among the leaders who fell the most compared to the previous rating, such as the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov (from 5 to 4-), head of Chuvashiya Mikhail Ignatyev (from 4 to 3-), the governor of Zabaikalsky Krai Konstantin Ilkovsky (from 5 to 4-), the governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyev (from 5 to 4-), and the head of Tambov region Oleg Betin (from 4 to 2-).

“Vasily Bochkarev has been considered one of the most successful governors for a long time: he was strictly controlling the politics in the region and well able to neutralize potential opponents. Even though the situation has seemingly remained without noticeable changes, the approaching end of his term in office created an intrigue in the region. However, Vasily Bochkarev may still gain from the idea of not allowing bad political emptiness,” says the note.

The region was strongly rated for its neutral media atmosphere and lack of serious political opposition, while the only negative point was the approaching end of the governor’s terms in office in May 2015.

According to analysts, the current situation will make a few points important for high-level state survivability in the office, including popularity, control over political and social situation when faced by economic issues, no or minimal corruption scandals and conflicts involving the police, the ability to follow federal priorities, the skill to conduct local reforms without any troubles and take responsibility for municipal events, and readiness of the federal authorities to hold extraordinary 2016-2018 elections in 2015 to ease the load on voters.

The political survivability rating has been compiled since 2007. It evaluates the possibility of an official to keep his office in the next year using a five-point scale, where 5 is the highest, and 1 is the lowest.