The protege of the Speaker of the State Council has resigned from the Crimean government. Who will take the position?
The Minister of Construction and Architecture of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Kononov, wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will. This was reported by the press service of the Crimean government, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Kononov has held the position since October 2014. Such longevity in the government with a frantic turnover of personnel was explained by the patronage of the speaker of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov.
For ten years - practically from his college days - Kononov worked at Consol LTD LLC, owned by Konstantinov. While in office, the minister did not forget his alma mater, awarding Consol with prizes and more.
The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, explained Kononov’s resignation by saying that the minister did not solve the problem of defrauded shareholders. The problem had been brewing for a long time, but Aksenov held a meeting on it in early December, scolding the relevant minister.
The commission on the problems of shareholders is now headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Yevgeny Kabanov, who yesterday announced Kononov’s resignation.
Evgeny Kabanov, who oversees the implementation of the federal target program, took office recently. His appointment raised many questions in the republic, since the newly-minted Deputy Prime Minister until recently owned the construction company Interstroy, which was actively working in both Sevastopol and Crimea.
They expect that he can lobby his own creature for a ministerial position. Critics admit that after this the interests of Interstroy, rather than Consoli, will be promoted.
However, some experts claim that Kabanov is not such an independent figure. Allegedly, the influential ex-mayor of Yalta, Andrei Rostenko, is behind him. This spring, he was arrested on suspicion of illegally transferring land in Alupka to municipal ownership. The entire Crimean elite stood up for Rostenko, starting with the head of the republic Sergei Aksenov. The ex-mayor was soon released from the pre-trial detention center; he retained the position of adviser to the government of Crimea.
Coincidentally or not, Kabanov’s long-delayed appointment occurred immediately after the criminal case against Rostenko was closed.
It is difficult to guess who Rostenko will propose for the position. During the years of his leadership, Yalta was literally overgrown with high-rise buildings, so the ex-mayor has extensive connections with developers.
There is also a version that a “Varangian” from the mainland will be appointed to the vacant seat. For Crimea, where the small-town elite jealously guards their positions, this is very uncharacteristic. Here, those who have come in large numbers are quickly disposed of.
“They are predicting a certain Nikita Sergeevich Tarasov for the post of Minister of Construction, there is no information about him, there is an assumption that perhaps he is a specialist from St. Petersburg, he was an architect of one of the districts,” wrote Crimean blogger Alexander Talipov.
Sergei Aksenov promised that the candidacy of the new minister would be named by the end of the week.
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