What happened. Vladimir Putin said that the head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, is "moving to another job."
"The term of the current head of the republic [Dagestan], Sergey Melikov, expires in September. He has done a lot. And we are grateful to him for this. But he is moving to another job, life goes on," he said.
"Outsider." Until very recently, almost all of Fyodor Shchukin’s career had no connection to Dagestan.
He is 49 years old, and throughout these years he built his career in Nizhny Novgorod Region, where he was born. In 1997, Shchukin graduated from the law faculty of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, after which he worked for decades in the region’s judicial system.
Judge. From 1995 to 2004, he worked as a legal adviser at industrial enterprises in Nizhny Novgorod Region. He then began his judicial career at a magistrate’s court in the Pochinkovsky District. He was also elected a deputy of the Zemsky Assembly of the Pochinkovsky District.
In 2013, Shchukin was appointed chairman of the Semyonovsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region, where he worked for seven years. Since November 2020, he had served as deputy chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court.
He was appointed chairman of the Supreme Court of Dagestan only in 2024.
A non-obvious choice. Russian media had named Magomed Ramazanov, deputy presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District, as the main successor to Sergey Melikov. However, he ultimately received only the post of chairman of the government of Dagestan.
During the election of the Supreme Court of Dagestan in 2023, five judges competed in the contest. Only two of them represented the republic itself, yet in 2024 the choice was ultimately made in favor of Shchukin.
Not from the security services. As Vedomosti noted, citing sources, Magomed Ramazanov comes from the security services. At the same time, there is no information about Fyodor Shchukin’s ties to any security agencies.