MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday named a tank factory worker who once vowed on national television to protect him from Moscow protesters as one his personal regional representatives.
Uralvagonzavod military factory foreman Igor Kholmanskikh shot to fame across Russia in December when Putin was holding a marathon televised phone-in just days after the first mass protest of his 12-year rule shook Moscow.
Putin mocked the protesters and rejected claims of vote rigging in parliamentary elections. The tightly choreographed show then switched to a
question from Kholmanskikh in the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil in the Ural mountains.
"I would like to say about these meetings," Kholmanskikh said while standing in front of a carefully assembled line of tough-looking Uralvagonzavod factory workers.
"If the police... cannot handle them, then the boys and I are ready to come over and stand up for our stability -- but of course within the frameworks of the law," he said to warm applause from the Moscow studio audience.
"Come on over," Putin replied. "But not now -- and I hope not for this reason."
Putin was winding down his four-year stint as premier at the time and about to launch a campaign for a third presidential term that was crowned with a crushing March election victory that took much steam out of the protest movement.
The former KGB spy relied heavily on the support of blue-collar workers in his presidential run and seemed to be only underscoring those roots by inviting the foreman to his suburban Moscow residence.
He then offered him the title of Urals Federal District envoy while state television cameras rolled.
"I think this will be right for you -- a person who spent his entire life working in a factory and knows how ordinary people live -- and that you will be able to defend people's interests," Putin told a visibly blushing Kholmanskikh.
"I hope that I do not let anyone down," the factory worker replied after looking shyly up from Putin's work table and swallowing hard.
Putin created the regional envoy posts during his 2000-2008 presidency as part of his early efforts to centralise command of Russia after a tumultuous era of the 1990s in which the regions enjoyed broad control.
The seven Kremlin representatives have no formal powers but report directly to Putin and as such can exercise commanding powers in regional affairs.
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