Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief Ivanov denies receiving Kremlin job offer
MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), Viktor Ivanov, has dismissed reports about his possible transfer to a job in the presidential administration.
"There were no offers, no discussions," he told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.
He was dismissing media reports about the possible closure of FSKN and his transfer to the Kremlin.
It emerged yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had dismissed his advisor Sergei Dubik. A presidential decree to that effect was posted on the Kremlin website.
Ivanov told reporters he was unaware about the reasons for Dubik's resignation. "I have not seen him for a long time, for three or four years. I learnt about his dismissal from the papers," Ivanov said.
On Monday the Kommersant newspaper reported that Ivanov could become an advisor to the president. The paper said that documentation concerning the FSKN abolition and handover of its powers to the interior and health care ministries had been sent to the government. No final decision has been made yet to disband the agency: the documents could be recalled from the government, Kommersant wrote.
On February 13, the Izvestia newspaper said on its website that a decree had been drafted abolishing the FSKN and handing over its duties to the Interior Ministry. Under the document, the FSKN is to be abolished from March 1, 2015, the paper said.
On February 4, the Kommersant newspaper said that the Federal Migration Service, too, could be disbanded, and its duties transferred to the Interior Ministry.