Change of region's governor suspected as the reason for departures (260 words)

Published: 1/16/2001

Aviastar's Board of Directors has “retired” Yury Kolpakov, having only appointed him General Director of the Ulyanovsk based OAO Aviastar at the end of last July. Having ostensibly fired him they are reported to have in turn appointed him “Director for Defence Orders” at OAO Aviastar's production affiliate ZAO Aviastar - Aircraft Production. In his place the board have appointed Serguey Kartashov, as General Director of OAO Aviastar. Kartashov, is 36 years old and joined the company in 1986 on the shop-floor. He became Deputy Head of Production in 1992 and was appointed Deputy Director of Real Estate in 1998. He then became Director of Investments and Real Estate for OAO Aviastar in November of 2000. The reason for Kolpakov's “retirement” has not been revealed. There is a suspicion however, that the recent election loss on the 24th December of Kolpakov's former boss, Yury Goryachev (Governor of the Ulyanovsk Region) to Putin loyalist, General Vladimir Shamanov, may have played its part. Kolpakov had been Vice-Governor to Goryachev, who had held power in the region for over a decade, up until December 2000.Apparently, the new Governor is said to have used his newly-acquired influence in the region to “persuade” the producer's Board to fire Kolpakov, despite the fact that the State no longer owns the producer (having only 6.4% of the company's stock). The company is however, heavily influenced by its incorporation in the Tupolev joint stock company, which is 50% state-owned. The State has also made considerable noise, of late, regarding its support of the plant, eagerly searching for new programmes to produce, including the An-70.

Article ID: 2293