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Despite the fact that on Friday top officials from the government and the Kremlin confirmed to
us that
Nazdratenko (Ed. ex-governor of Maritime Territory that has been suffering an acute energy
crisis) would not be
appointed head of the State Committee for Fishing, on Saturday he was appointed to this
post.
MK (Ed. Moskovskiy Komsomolets) has already written that Nazdratenko "traded" with the
federal authorities for a
promise not to run in the new gubernatorial elections in Maritime Territory. Unfortunately the
centre turned out to
lack enough strength to oppose the will of the ex-governor to assume such a choice fishing
post which is party to
huge financial flows.
Many representatives of the political beau monde are not happy about this appointment. The
right-wing forces consider this new post of Nazdratenko as Kremlin games. For example, the leader of the SPS
faction of the Duma Boris Nemtsov thinks that "instead of winning the elections against him, and in an elementary
way - he committed many sins in Maritime Territory - the authorities are trying on the one hand to throw him a bone
named the State Fisheries Committee and on the other hand obtain a guarantee that nobody who resigns before
the end of their term or on presidential orders can participate in the elections." A member of
Yabloko Sergei Ivanenko is also sure that "this is a typical nomenclatura change of places in
typical Soviet style", to prevent the governor from being reelected, as "experience tends to demonstrate that
ex-governors who resign under the Kremlin's pressure enjoy huge popularity in the regions." The leader of the pro-Kremlin
group "People's Deputy" Gennadi Raikov also thinks that "such an agreement exists to make sure that he will
not try for re-election." At the same time everyone doubts that Nazdratenko has the requisite abilities to
improve the work of the department that he has been appointed to run.
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