PRESS: Russian federal property agency head to quit Feb 1

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (PRIME) -- Olga Dergunova, chief of the Russian Federal State Property Management Agency, will likely resign on February 1 over what the Kremlin and the government see as the agency’s attempts to slow down regional privatizations, business daily Kommersant reported Thursday, citing two high-ranking government officials.

Many auctions were cancelled in 2015, in part because of a decision of the state property management watchdog, the sources said.

The government is preparing for a large-scale privatization in 2016 to cover budget gaps, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday.

Kommersant reported that the property watchdog was earlier sidelined from preparations to sell stakes in Rosneft, Sovcomflot and VTB, which might mean that the state wants someone with an ability to perform tasks of such a scale on this position.

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