23 Apr 2020 23:57

Mishustin fires Industry and Trade Deputy Minister Ovsyannikov following incident at Izhevsk airport - United Russia

MOSCOW. April 23 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has discharged Industry and Trade Deputy Minister Dmitry Ovsyannikov of his office.

United Russia, the party whose member Ovsyannikov used to be and from which he was expelled following an incident at the Izhevsk airport in early April, published Mishustin's order dated April 23 on Ovsyannikov's discharge on its official Telegram channel. The order indicates that the official was relieved of his duties "due to the elimination of the office."

Earlier in April, Mishustin had signed an order amending the statute of the Industry and Trade Ministry to reduce the number of the positions of deputy minister to ten from eleven.

As reported earlier, Ovsyannikov was involved in a conflict with law enforcement officials responsible for security at the Izhevsk airport on April 6, during which he reportedly used foul language. The police filed an administrative offence report on Ovsyannikov.

Soon afterwards, United Russia expelled Ovsyannikov for gross misconduct and notified Mishustin and Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov that Ovsyannikov was unfit for the position.

Manturov said he shared United Russia's position. "This inappropriate behavior is unacceptable for anyone, the more so for a public official , especially of this high level. We are facing a lot of complicated objectives and a lot of challenges that the industry and trade sector has to deal with, and it's obvious that Ovsyannikov will not be involved in this job," Manturov said.

Ovsyannikov graduated from Udmurt State University and started his career in Izhevsk. He served as a federal inspector for Udmurtia in 2003-2007, as a deputy industry and trade minister in 2015-2016, as governor of Sevastopol in 2016-2019, and then was again appointed deputy industry and trade minister.