Longtime Leader Of Kabardino-Balkaria Resigns

Arsen Kanokov had been in office for nine years.

The leader of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen Kanokov, has resigned.

The Kremlin said on December 6 that President Vladimir Putin had accepted Kanokov's resignation and asked the chief of the Moscow-based Russian Law Enforcement Officers' Institute, Yury Kokov, to serve as acting leader.

Kanokov, in office for nine years, said he was stepping down because he favors the idea of "rotation."

Kokov, a veteran law-enforcement specialist, is originally from Kabardino-Balkaria, which is one of the most volatile republics in Russia's North Caucasus region.

Russia's National Antiterrorist Committee said on on December 6 that security forces killed four suspected militants in Kabardino-Balkaria's Baksan district in a counterterrorist operation that was launched on the previous day.

It's the latest incident involving suspects allegedly linked either to organized crime or the Islamic insurgency in the region.


Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti