YAKUTSK, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - The parliament of the Yakutia Republic in East Siberia has approved Vyacheslav Shtyrov as president, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Thursday.
He was confirmed by a 60-3 vote, with one abstention.
Russian President Vladimir Putin nominated Shtyrov, 43, the incumbent president of the diamond-rich Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, for another five-year term November 28.
From 1995 to 2002, Shtyrov was president of Yakutia-based state-controlled Alrosa, one of the world's largest diamond mining companies, accounting for 25% of global diamond production.
Shtyrov's candidacy had to be approved by Il Tumen, Yakutia's bicameral parliament, in line with a Putin-proposed 2004 law that abolished elections of regional presidents and governors, and gave the president the right to nominate candidates.
Rights groups in Russia and abroad have criticized the law as an erosion of democracy.
