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Marching Season
Russia Profile,
07/28/2010As the summer heats up, so are Russia’s demonstrators. The opposition in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, which saw a series of mass demonstrations against the regional governor from January to March, is readying to take to the streets again. But despite a front-page spread in a national broadsheet, few in Kaliningrad seem to know about the plans. And, stranger still, the leaders of the winter demonstrations are hostile to the latest plans.
Booed Off Stage
Russia Profile,
08/19/2010Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos was ousted Monday when the United Russia ruling party did not include his name on the list of candidates for governor it presented to President Dmitry Medvedev in the process of gubernatorial selection. Boos had been under pressure ever since major demonstrations in the Baltic exclave in February, and President Dmitry Medvedev has acknowledged that the governor could not carry on without the “unconditional respect and trust of the citizens living in the region.” What was behind the apparently last minute decision to let Boos go, and what does it mean for Kaliningrad?
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BOOS, Georgy Valentinovich
Former Governor of Kaliningrad Region
09/30/2010
Georgy Boos (Георгий Валентинович Боос) was born January 22, 1963 in Moscow. The governor of Kaliningrad Region from November 2005 until September 2010, in summer 2010 United Russia announced that it would not be nominating him to serve a second term.
Boos graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MEI) in 1986, specializing in technical sciences. Upon graduation he joined the Soviet Air Force, serving until 1988. He then worked as a senior engineer and junior researcher at an institute for lighting technology, and taught high school algebra and geometry in Moscow until 1991
He worked at lighting company Svetoservis from 1991 to 1995, serving first as director, then general director. In December 1995 he was elected State Duma deputy for the Medvedkovo region of Moscow, serving as vice-chairman of the Our Home is Russia faction and member of the Budget and Tax Committee during his first two years in parliament.
In September 1998 he was appointed head of the State Tax Service. He was also the Russian tax minister from December 1998 to May 1999, before he was dismissed by Boris Yeltsin, alongside the whole of then-Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s cabinet.
In the late 1990s Boos was also a member of the board of state representatives at Russian Public Television (ORT) and chief of the election campaign of the Fatherland (Otechestvo) political party.
When he returned as State Duma deputy for the Medvedkovo region of Moscow in 1999 he was a member of the Fatherland-All Russia faction, which subsequently merged with Unity, to form the United Russia party.
From 2000 to 2005 he was deputy speaker of the State Duma and a member of the Duma Tax and Budget Committee.
In September 2005 he was appointed governor of the Kaliningrad region by then-President Vladimir Putin, the first governor of the region to be directly elected by the Russian president.
In early 2010 a series of protests against Boos were organized in the region. The largest such event, held on January 31, saw 10,000 people take to the streets to protest against increased fuel duties and transport tax. Despite making several concessions to the protestors, and enjoying support from United Russia until as late as July 2010, Boos was not included in the party’s list of candidates for the next term of office. He ceased to be governor of Kaliningrad in September 2010.
Boos has been married three times and has six children. He is also an enthusiastic ice hockey player and fan.
Related links:
First Governor Ousted Amid Unrest (The Moscow Times 17/08/2010)
