Energy Ministry denies RusHydro chief's resignation
MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - The Russian Energy Ministry has denied reports that Vasily Zubakin, the acting chief executive of hydrogenerating company RusHydro , has resigned.
The ministry told Interfax that this was a matter for the board of directors to decide, and that the board had reached no such decision.
"These [rumors about his resignation] are pure insinuations," the ministry said.
Zubakin's possible resignation is being linked to the disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-power plant on August 17, which killed 75 people and damaged or destroyed nine of the plant's ten generators.
Press reports quote government sources as saying Zubakin's resignation had already been decided and named Andrei Malyshev, deputy head of state nanotechnology corporation Rusnano, as his probable successor.
Zubakin has been acting chief executive of RusHydro since the middle of last year, when the incumbent, Vyacheslav Sinyugin, left to become deputy energy minister. Zubakin's position has not been made permanent, and reports emerged back at the beginning of August last year that Rusnano's Malyshev was among the candidates to fill the post.
The commission that the government set up to investigate the causes of the Sayano-Shushenskaya accident is still conducting its inquiry, and the final results have not yet been released.