On April 10, Tkachev, whose current term expires in March 2009, a year after the presidential election, asked the president for a vote of confidence. In a maneuver designed to secure a presidential endorsement for a second term, another governor, Valentina Matviyenko of St. Petersburg, near the end of her first term last December submitted her resignation to President Vladimir Putin and also asked for a vote of confidence.
The latest reports said the local legislature would consider Tkachev's candidacy at an emergency meeting with all factions and the governor himself attending April 23.
Tkachev is widely known as the man behind the failed seizure of the island of Tuzla in the Kerch Strait (the governor had a dam constructed from the Russian shore to the disputed Ukrainian island) and for his strong stand against illegal immigration in Russia, with some commentators interpreting his remarks as racist.
Some have speculated that Tkachev could become Putin's successor.
