The article is devoted to the problem of assessing the effectiveness of regional executive on the example of the Republic of Buryatia. Buryatia is one of the subsidized subjects of the Russian Federation, with a low level of per capita income, a low population density, especially in rural areas, a high level of unemployment and other socio-economic challenges for government. Author considers the theoretical approaches to measuring the effectiveness of public administration and transformation of the regulatory framework for assessing the effectiveness of regional executive in Russia. The list of indicators of the performance of executive authorities in the subjects of the Russian Federation, introduced by the Decree of the President of Russia in April 2019, is analyzed. Comparing the new indicators with the previous assessment system adopted in 2017, the author, on the basis of socio-economic statistics of the Republic of Buryatia, shows their applicability to assessing the quality of governance in the region. An important innovation was the indicator "trust in power", which replaced the previous indicators of social satisfaction of the population, although they were more illustrative for measuring the quality of solving specific social problems.