Putin fires three government ministers
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees dismissing three government ministers from the cabinet of Mikhail Mishustin.
Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin, Minister of Transport Yevgeny Dietrich, as well as the Minister of Construction Vladimir Yakushev lost their posts.
Yakushev, the former governor of the Tyumen region, will remain in the power vertical and will take up the post of President's representative in the Ural Federal District in place of Nikolai Tsukanov.
Under Kobylkin’s management Russia experienced one of its largest environmental disasters since 1990, the oil spill in Norilsk. Dietrich is considered to be responsible for the failure of an ambitious plan to develop the Northern Sea Route. Kobylkin and Dietrich have not been offered new jobs yet.
Prime Minister Mishustin has proposed to nominate the chief executive officer of Aeroflot Vitaly Savelyev as Minister of Transport, and Alexander Kozlov, former governor of the Amur region and currently head of the Ministry of Far East Development, as Minister of Natural Resources.
Kozlov's post in the ministry will go to Alexei Chekunov, CEO of the Far East Development Fund.
Irek Faizullin, the first deputy head of the Minister of Construction and the former Minister of Construction and Housing of Tatarstan, was nominated as Minister of Construction instead of Yakushev.
Putin has also signed a decree to increase the number of deputy prime ministers in the government to 10. The position of Mishustin's deputy was offered to Energy Minister Alexander Novak. The Ministry of Energy will be headed by Nikolai Shulginov, CEO of the Russian hydroelectricity company, Rushydro.
All candidates "have a lot of experience in effectively solving problems in different industries and have proven themselves," Mishustin said at a Cabinet meeting on Monday. He added that he hoped that the Russian Parliament would approve all the proposed candidates.