Head of Moscow Electricity Company Quits After Public Roasting By Putin
Jun 04 - BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union
[Putin] I think this is simply blackmail, designed to benefit group and
corporate interests at the expense of the consumer. In fact, at the expense of
all society. I draw the attention of the chairman of the government to the
cynicism and obvious incompetence of the Mosenergo [Moscow energy company]
management.
[Presenter] So it looks like we can expect some personnel upheavals at
Mosenergo. But not just the Moscow electricity company came in for criticism.
Putin pointed to the recent rise in power outages, in Krasnodar, Saratov, Sochi,
Tula and Ryazan, and said this is a clear sign of systemic problems. At this
point questions were asked about the national Russian electricity company. For
example, why it is not maintaining equipment and where its money is going.
[Passage omitted]
To continue the theme, some news just in about the start of the personnel
upheaval that we anticipated. The general director of Mosenergo, Arkadiy
Yestafyev, has submitted his resignation, a member of the Unified Energy System
board, [Andrey] Trapeznikov, has announced.