He heads the government of Sverdlovsk Oblast and is elected by direct popular vote for the term of five years.

On 16 October 1991, chairman of executive committee of Sverdlovsk Oblast Eduard Rossel was appointed Head of Administration of the region.

Rossel pursued a policy aimed at obtaining the economic and legislative independence from the federal Center.

[1] President of Russia Boris Yeltsin initially announced his support for the Ural Republic, but on 9 November 1993, a presidential decree was issued on the dissolution of the Sverdlovsk Regional Council, and on the next day Eduard Rossel himself was sacked.

In 2009, president Dmitry Medvedev appointed deputy minister of transport Alexander Misharin as the new head of the region.