Mikhail Kislyuk is now the only governor who was not popularly elected and is unlikely to hang on to his seat when voting is finally scheduled.
His political career began in the summer of 1989 when he stood at the head of the miners' strike against the government of USSR Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. After the strike was over, Kislyuk, a mining engineer, helped found the Kuzbas Workers' Union and was in the leadership of the Union of Kuzbas Workers' Committees. The next year, he was elected to the Russian Federation parliament and the regional legislature. Supported by the workers' committees, he sought election as the legislature's chairman, but lost to Aman Tuleev and became his deputy.
After the August coup attempt, when Kislyuk was among the defenders of the Russian parliament building in Moscow, President Yeltsin appointed him oblast governor instead of Tuleev, who also had been the chairman of the regional executive committee (oblispolkom) and, despite Yeltsin's order, supported the coup.
The regional legislative assembly, dominated by left-wing deputies, constantly opposed Kislyuk, with the dispute becoming particularly heated in October 1993 during Yeltsin's clash with the federal parliament. While Kislyuk called on both the president and the parliament to compromise, the oblast legislature supported the parliament. In the end, Kislyuk disbanded the assembly on Yeltsin's order.
Kislyuk quickly came into conflict with the next assembly which was elected in early 1994 and also dominated by the Communists. However, the deputies were ill-disciplined. When their term of office was about to expire, they were unable to gather a quorum to extend their term, in accordance with a presidential decree allowing regional legislatures to stay in office for an additional two years. In March 1996, Kislyuk disbanded the assembly by decree for a second time, but a new election could not be held because the assembly had yet to pass a new electoral law. In addition, the oblast could not schedule a gubernatorial election for the same reason.
Legislative elections were finally held in December 1996. The new assembly is trying to come to an agreement with Kislyuk over an electoral law for gubernatorial elections. The assembly wants to reduce the minimum turnout requirement from 50% to 25%, while the governor claims such a threshold is too low and a new governor elected with such a low turnout would not really be legitimate. However, many claim that Kislyuk is blocking the law to stay in office as long as possible. If elections are held with the 50% barrier but the actual turnout is lower, he would stay in office until the turnout requirement is met in repeat elections. Kislyuk has asked Yeltsin to schedule the elections for October.
Chairman of the Legislative Assembly -- Aleksandr Filatov was elected to this post in January 1997. He is a former first secretary of the Leninsk-Kuznetsk city CPSU committee, and was backed by CIS Minister Aman Tuleev's Popular Power, the strongest left-wing movement in the region.
Kemerovo Oblast, often called Kuzbas after the Kuznetsk Coal Basin, is located in South-Western Siberia, where the West-Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains. The oblast, 95,700 sq km, shares a border with Tomsk Oblast in the north, Krasnoyarsk Krai and Khakasiya in the east, Altai Krai in the south, and Novosibirsk Oblast and Altai Republic in the west.
The oblast's oldest city, Kuznetsk (after 1961, Novokuznetsk) was founded in 1618, soon after Cossack Ataman Yermak's push into Siberia. It remains the largest city in the region, exceeding even the oblast capital, Kemerovo. The region is one of the country's most urbanized. Over seventy percent of the population lives in nine regional industrial centers.
The Kuznetsk Coal Basin is one of the biggest in the world. The oblast extracts over 30% of the Russia's total coal production. The Kuzbas is the main fuel and energy base for the eastern part of Russia and its significance has grown after the Soviet Union collapsed. The region's other industries, such as machine construction, chemicals and metallurgy, are based on coal mining.
1995 Population (est.): 3,077,900 (2.08% of Russian total) Industrial production as percentage of all Russian production (Jan.-Aug. 1995): 4.01%
Agricultural production as percentage of all Russian production (1994): 1.69%
Average personal income index in July 1995: 137 (Russia as a whole = 100) Price basket index in July 1995: 91 (Russia = 100) Average back wages owed per person (September 1995): 137,400 rubles (Russian average = 37,100)
Urban population: 86.8% (Russia overall: 73.0%) Student population (1993): 120 per 10,000 (Russia overall: 171/10,000); Pensioner population (1994): 25.21% Percent of population with higher education (1989 census): 8.0% (Russia overall: 11.3%)
Percent of population working in (1993): Industry: 40.5% (Russian average: 29.9%); Agriculture: 7.3% (12.8%); Trade: 6.6% (9.1%); Culture: 10.8% (13. 6%); Management: 1.6% (2.3%)
Number of telephones per 100 families (1993): in cities : 28.8 (Russian average: 41.5); in villages: 18.6 (17.2)
According to a 1995 survey by Bank Austria, the oblast ranked 46th among Russia's 89 regions in terms of investment climate.