General to headquarters

Oleg Mitvol's powers are divided

The personnel shake-up at Rosprirodnadzor, which its head Vladimir Kirillov had been unable to carry out for a long time, has finally happened. The head of the environmental department at the beginning of the week staffed his deputies with an army general, the ex-head of the Federal Border Service, and the former permanent representative of Russia to NATO, Konstantin Totsky, and yesterday he distributed powers among them.

The order to appoint Mr. Totsky was signed last week by the Minister of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev. However, the appointment was officially announced this Monday. Mr. Totsky will now take over the functions of the deputies who left Rosprirodnadzor - Ivan Klemenkov and Oleg Mitvol. Deputy Head of the Service Vladimir Smolin, who has held his post for four years, will continue to oversee the activities of the Department of Geological Control and Subsoil Protection. Another deputy, Alexey Akulov, is responsible for the department of economics and finance, and will now also take care of environmental control, which was previously the domain of Mr. Mitvol.

Let us recall that Mr. Mitvol dealt with issues of forestry, water, land and environmental supervision. As is known, he came into conflict with the head of the service, Mr. Kirillov, who was appointed to this position at the beginning of last year. The boss and subordinate spent several months in mutual accusations and even filed complaints against each other to the Prosecutor General's Office. It would seem that the end to the conflict should have been reached in August last year, when, by decision of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the number of deputy heads of Rosprirodnadzor was reduced from four to three. However, Mr. Mitvol did not lose his position at that time: the implementation of the government’s decision was delayed until March, when another deputy, Ivan Klemenkov, unexpectedly wrote a letter of resignation at his own request addressed to the Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev. After it was satisfied, Mr. Kirillov was left with three deputies. Then Oleg Mitvol retained his position, but he soon announced that he was not going to continue his activities at Rosprirodnadzor and left the service. Now, as you know, he has been appointed prefect of the Northern District of Moscow.

Mr. Totsky has a much better chance of getting along with Mr. Kirillov than Mr. Mitvol: the head of Rosprirodnadzor himself served in the border troops for about 20 years. According to the press service of the environmental department, the former general will be involved in licensing activities and control specially protected natural areas. Part of the powers of Oleg Mitvol also passed to him - Mr. Totsky became the curator of the maritime control department.

Kirill MELNIKOV