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Envoy of Internal Affairs
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has appointed Deputy Internal Minister Oleg Safonov his envoy to the Far East. The office has been vacant for nearly a month, after the former envoy, Kamil Iskhakov became the deputy to regional development minister. Safonov is expected to focus on decriminalization of the Far East, but his former colleagues don’t think he was particularly efficient in the previous offices.
”You are heading for one of the most difficult and vital regions for the country, the Far East,” Putin told the new envoy, emphasizing that one of the key tasks there is the region’s decriminalization.
Predictably, Safonov endeavored to manifest solid understanding of the Far East’s difficulties. “You have rightly said that it is necessary to start with decriminalizing the economy, especially on the threshold of the APEC forum [slated for 2012]. I will try to focus on developing economy, industry and social field,” the bureaucrat promised.
But the former colleagues of Safonov speak about him with no particular enthusiasm. As the deputy internal minister for criminal police, for instance, he replaced Police Gen-Col Andrei Novikov despite the lack of experience in enforcement bodies. The sources say that, in time of Safonov, the criminal investigation department and the department for fighting organized crime and terrorism actually stopped reporting about successful operations and the Kremlin was bound to notice it.
In the South Federal District, they remember Safonov not for achievements but for losing the gun and ID during New Year celebration in Kislovodsk and for the following scandal. Dmitry Kozak, who was appointed to the South Federal District in 2004, accelerated Safonov’s transfer to the Audit Chamber, which he left for Interior Ministry.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 31, 2007
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