President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday appointed senior antitrust official Vitaly Korolyov as acting governor of the Tver region more than a month after the post was vacated.

Korolyov, 45, replaces Igor Rudenya, whom Putin named as his envoy to the Northwestern Federal District after a nine-year term in late September.

In a late-night meeting with Putin, Korolyov said his priorities include winter infrastructure readiness, support for families of soldiers fighting in Ukraine and advancing the high-speed highway project that passes through the Tver region.

“My main priority will of course be improving people’s quality of life,” he told Putin.

Located northwest of Moscow, the Tver region is known for its timber industry, metal manufacturing and its strategic position linking Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Putin characterized the Tver region as “the very heart of Russian land that has issues which require extra attention and solutions.”

Korolyov, a native of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, joined Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) in 2005 and became deputy chief of FAS in 2015.

Korolyov will serve as acting governor until the next gubernatorial election in September 2026.