A vice governor of Russia's far eastern Primorye region has been sacked after threatening to “thrash” opposition groups, Kommersant daily reported on Wednesday.
Alexander Shemelev, a senior member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, was given the boot after a series of postings on his Twitter account in which he said “there was no choice” but to “thrash” the opposition.
“I have been putting down protest activities here for two years now. The law is adaptable, I can give you hell and fill slammers with you,” he wrote in 2010.
Shemelev has been the region’s vice governor in charge of internal politics since 2008.
The Communist KPRF party has called for charges to be brought against him.
Regional KPRF leader Vladimir Grishukov said Shemelev was ousted over United Russia’s poor results at last month’s contested parliamentary elections.
The party garnered just 32.9 percent of the vote in Primorye, near the Chinese border, a far cry from its nationwide 49.3 percent.
Widespread allegations of vote rigging in the December 4 elections sparked protests across Russia against United Russia and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this month, President Dmitry Medvedev sacked the governors of the southern Arkhangelsk and Volgograd region, where United Russia ended up with just 31 and 35.5 percent of the vote respectively.
