Vyacheslav Gladkov resigns as governor of Russia’s Belgorod region

The Kremlin announced that Vyacheslav Gladkov has resigned as governor of the Belgorod region. Gladkov submitted his resignation voluntarily, and President Vladimir Putin accepted it. Putin appointed Alexander Shuvaev — a 45-year-old deputy governor of the Irkutsk region, a veteran of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and a graduate of the Vremya Geroev program — as acting head of the region.

Gladkov had governed the Belgorod region since 2021. He is 57, born in the Penza region, and built his career in the administration of his hometown of Zarechny, becoming its head in 2009. From 2016 he served as deputy governor of Sevastopol for internal affairs. Gladkov took over the Belgorod region after Yevgeny Savchenko stepped down — Savchenko had held the governorship for a record 27 years. Gladkov’s own term was set to expire in the fall of 2026.

With the start of the full-scale war, the Belgorod region became a frontline region. Gladkov was practically the only governor who reported daily and in detail on attacks and shelling, traveled extensively around the region, and communicated with residents — though commenters frequently criticized him for failing to answer difficult questions. He also criticized certain government decisions, among them the blocking of Telegram, through which Belgorod residents received alerts about shelling. After mobile internet outages, Gladkov said the “white list” was not working properly in the region and that the MAX messenger was not delivering missile danger notifications.

Gladkov was in office during the incursion by the RVC. In June 2023, fighters from the Russian Volunteer Corps seized the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka and invited Gladkov there, promising that if he was not afraid to come, they would hand over captured Russian servicemen to him. Gladkov proposed a meeting, but it never took place. A source who spoke to Meduza said the governor had been willing to go to Novaya Tavolzhanka, but Russia’s Presidential Administration did not approve the meeting with the RVC.

Rumors about Gladkov’s resignation began circulating in April 2026. Sources at the Russian business daily Vedomosti said that public support for the authorities in the Belgorod region was “not the best” due to a decline in quality of life compared to earlier times, and that it was “logical to carry out a rotation, if there is an opportunity to do so.” On April 16, amid those rumors, Gladkov announced he was going on vacation for two weeks. On May 4, he extended the vacation by another two weeks.

Where Gladkov will go next is unknown. He did not comment on his resignation on either Telegram or MAX. Sources at Vedomosti predicted he would be appointed deputy minister of economic development under Maxim Reshetnikov, and later said he would be offered the post of ambassador to Abkhazia.