PRESS: Deputy transport min may lose his post over VIM-Avia woes

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (PRIME) -- Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov may leave his post very soon under a formal reason of retirement due to an old age, but market players tie the retirement to the failure of Russian airline VIM-Avia, Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday citing sources in the aviation industry.

The sources told the business daily that the most probable successor to 65-year-old Okulov is former head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Yurchik. But Yurchik is of the same age as Okulov, so the reason of retirement due to an old age may raise questions, Kommersant reported.

Okulov is a son-in-law of Russia’s first President Boris Yeltsin. He had been CEO of national flag carrier Aeroflot for 12 years before former Transport Minister Igor Levitin appointed him as a deputy minister in April 2009. Kommersant reported that rumors of Okulov leaving the post had been circulating since 2012, when Maxim Sokolov became the minister.

The sources told the business daily that the ministry had approved the retirement due to an old age, and a top manager at an aviation company and a government source confirmed the information.

“Over the past few months, the government has been deciding who was more responsible for the failure to pay attention to VIM-Avia’s problems timely, the Transport Ministry or the Federal Air Transport Agency,” Kommersant reported citing sources. A source in the aviation industry said that a decision was made to fire a man who was responsible for the aviation sector in the Transport Ministry, Okulov.

VIM-Avia is currently in a difficult financial situation, with its payables estimated at around 10 billion rubles. The airline had delayed a large number of flights from mid-summer to September 25, when it said it had no money to continue operations and had to stop charter flights. The government and Aeroflot pledged financial support to VIM-Avia.

(59.2746 rubles – U.S. $1)

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