Reshuffles possible in Fisheries Committee - chief (Part 3)

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov is determined to improve the situation in the Fisheries Committee (Rosrybolovstvo) essentially and, "if need be, in terms of personnel."

"I will be making the situation [in Rosrybolovstvo] healthier in both essential terms and, if need be, in terms of personnel," Fyodorov said at a news conference following a government meeting in reply to a question from Interfax as to whether the Agriculture Ministry intends to insist on Rorsrybolovstvo chief Andrei Krainy's dismissal in light of his criminal prosecution.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokesperson Natalya Timakova told Interfax that "the government has not yet received any requests from the Agriculture Ministry."

Addressing problems in the industry, Fyodorov said that of the 14.3 billion rubles allocated from the federal budget under a federal target program on the development of the fisheries complex (from 2009 to 2012), only 3 billion rubles were actually spent. After the implementation of this program started, its developers soon realized that they could not spend 14.3 billion rubles, and many large projects, including ship construction, went unrealized, he said.

At the same time, "the development indicators for the fisheries complex aren't bad," he said. For example, the production of marine biological resources reached its highest figure in 2011, and it remained at that level in 2012. The turnover of fishery organizations grew 8% last year, and retail trade turnover in fish and seafood jumped 10%.

In connection with Fyodorov's "dissatisfaction as the minister responsible for the fisheries complex," he intends to undertake measures to improve the situation in Rosrybolovstvo, he said.

According to the investigation, the criminal case against Sergei Muravyov, head of the northwestern department of the agency, charged with accepting bribes in a total amount of 26 million rubles and abuse of power, is currently being handled by the court.

On February 19, the head of the agency's PR center Alexander Savelyev announced that Krainy had sent a motion to the Prosecutor General's office and Moscow's Tverskoy district court to cancel the resolution on launching criminal proceedings against him as groundless and illegal.

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(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)