Putin certain former Kazakh PM Sagintayev will begin work as EEC chairman "energetically and without delay"

ST. PETERSBURG. Dec 25 (Interfax) - Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the economic and financial policy minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and former prime minister and head of the Kazakh presidential administration, will become chairman of the EEC next year.

His candidacy was expected to be approved at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said when opening the session.

"I would like to welcome Mr Sagintayev, who will become head of the board on February 1, 2024. We know him very well; he has already worked as a member of the EEC, and I am certain that he will begin fulfilling his new duties energetically and without delay. He was also in the Kazakh presidential administration, and he was prime minister of Kazakhstan," Putin said.

"Draft decisions on updating the composition of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the court of the Eurasian Economic Union were prepared for our session. I want to use this chance to thank all current members of the board, judges, and especially Board Chairman Mikhail Vladimirovich Myasnikovich for their considerable contribution to developing the Eurasian Economic Union. He really did a lot for the commission to ensure it worked rhythmically [and] effectively," Putin said.

The chairman of the EEC is approved for four months at the nomination of one of the EAEU member states in alphabetical order. The current head of the commission, former Belarusian Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the Belarusian National Assembly Mikhail Myasnikovich, was nominated by Belarus and approved for his post in 2019, and began exercising his powers in February 2020.

Kazakhstan is proposing a candidacy for the post of EEC chairman for the next four-year period. This has to be approved by all the union's members.

Sagintayev was born in 1963. He has worked for the EEC since June 1, 2022, when he joined the commission as minister of economy and financial policy. Prior to this, he was the head of Almaty in 2019-2022, led the Kazakh presidential administration in 2019, was the country's state secretary, and served as prime minister of Kazakhstan in 2016-2019.