MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin has approved the merger of the largely agrarian Buryat autonomy and the energy-rich region of Irkutsk in the south of East Siberia.
Putin has signed the law on the merger of the Irkutsk Region and the Ust-Ordyn Buryat Autonomous Area, earlier approved by both parliamentary chambers, the Kremlin press service said.
Urged by the necessity to solve local socioeconomic tasks and improve living standards in West Siberia, legislators in the Irkutsk Region and the Ust-Ordyn Buryat Autonomous Area submitted a merger proposal to the president in October 2005. The idea was approved by the majority of votes at a referendum last April.
The enlarged Irkutsk Region will come into existence from January 2008, and its government has been formed since January 2007. Local parliamentary elections will be held October 12, 2008, and the president will nominate a new governor within 35 days after the elections.
