After Sergey Shoigu was appointed Defense Minister, the post of he Moscow Region governor has become vacant and various politicians have announced plans to fight for it.

      On Tuesday, November 6, Russian President fired Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and replaced him with Shoigu, who has been the Moscow Region Governor since May.

      The election will be held in September next year on the day Russia holds its municipal and regional polls. Till then the President has to appoint an acting Governor.

      Though there are over six months before the start of the election campaign, members of the majority United Russia party and Liberal-Democrats (LDPR) already announced their plans to propose members as candidates for the post. The opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov proposes to nominate a common candidate from Russia's opposition movement.

      Besides, well-known environmentalist Oleg Mitvol and a rock-singer Sergey 'Spider' Troitsky have also announced their plans to run for office. Earlier this year Troitsky took part in the election for the head of Khimki town in the Moscow region, but only gained about 2.4 % of the vote.