Off With Her Head

Well, that's an easy way to get rid of folks you don't like...

President Authorized to Suspend Governors from Office
"On February 9, Russia’s State Duma will consider in the first reading the bill authorizing the president to suspend from office a governor should he/she face the criminal charges, irrespective of crime’s heaviness. The president will be entitled to remove a governor by application of the prosecutor general."

In the past few years, several governors have been charged with (not convicted of) various "crimes". This tactic has been used since 2004, when Putin enacted a law that did away with all popular elections for governors. Support for such centralized control by the Kremlin was not difficult to gain because of the Beslan school attack.

"Popular or not, an incumbent knows what could happen if he refuses to go quietly: They might be charged with abuse of office or mishandling finances... Samara Governor Konstantin Titov was charged Dec. 30 with endorsing a $10 million loan on preferential terms to a private firm that later disappeared. Vladimir Butov, governor of the Nenets autonomous district, was given a three-year suspended sentence Dec. 31 on charges of beating a traffic policemen. Butov insists that the case is politically motivated..." (from 2004)