Russian governor fires regional agriculture minister over livestock disease outbreak and other complaints

Novosibirsk Governor Andrei Travnikov has fired his regional agriculture minister, Andrei Shindelov, the regional government’s press service announced.

A successor will be confirmed on April 23.

Travnikov announced the dismissal at an operational government meeting, citing “accumulated complaints” about Shindelov’s performance across multiple areas, including slow delivery of state support to agricultural producers and inadequate veterinary safety standards.

“For the first time in many decades, we allowed dangerous animal diseases to enter the region,” Travnikov said.

Beginning in February, authorities in the Novosibirsk region began seizing and slaughtering livestock from local farmers. Officials attributed the action to outbreaks of rabies and pasteurellosis, a bacterial infection. Farmers said they were given no documentation when their animals were taken and received no clear explanation for why it was happening.

In protest, residents of several villages blocked roads and recorded an appeal to Vladimir Putin. The situation drew widespread attention beyond the region.

Pasteurellosis is treatable with antibiotics, and the law does not require infected livestock to be slaughtered. For that reason, the Russian business daily Kommersant and sources at Russian outlets suggested the actual disease could be something more serious: foot-and-mouth disease.

In mid-March, at the height of the standoff between farmers and authorities, a video circulated on social media showing Shindelov walking away from farmer Svetlana Panina of the village of Novoklyuchi. She had come to the minister with questions and ended up chasing him down the hallway.