The Russian Ministry of Transport has replaced the head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, removing Tatyana Anodina from the corresponding position and replacing her with the former deputy head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Oleg Storchevy. The committee believes that the actions of the department were illegal, and serious violations were made in the procedure, including due to the fact that Anodina was in the hospital at that moment.
On January 17, the Ministry of Transport of Russia announced that Tatyana Anodina, who headed the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), was being deprived of this position. Oleg Storchevoi, ex-deputy head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, was appointed the new chairman. This is reported by the publication “Kommersant”.
Commenting on the rotation, the Ministry of Transport indicated that the decision to change the head of the IAC was made as part of a meeting of the Council on Aviation and the Use of Airspace, and it was attended by authorized representatives of all states united by the IAC agreement. Also during it, the regulations on the IAC, a new version of the regulations on the council itself and documents regulating the financial activities of the organization were approved. At the same time, according to the publication, in the MAK itself the situation is regarded as “illegal”.
The fact is that, according to the sources of the newspaper, reappointing the chairman, according to the charter, is possible only through a quorum of the majority of representatives of the countries that signed the agreement. The committee insists that it did not organize any meeting on January 17, and the provision of the work of the council by other persons is not provided for by the agreement, therefore, it cannot be considered a session of the council. The IAC stressed that they still consider Anodina their chairman, and the committee will continue to work as usual.
Doubtful procedure
According to the Aviatorshchina Telegram channel, the Ministry of Transport began to act in the direction of changing the chairman of the IAC at the end of last month. A working session of the supreme body of the Agreement on Aviation and the Use of Airspace between ten post-Soviet countries, the Interstate Council, was scheduled for December 22. It was supposed to take place at the MAK headquarters in Moscow. However, the delegations of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan did not appear. At this time, they were all at a festive dinner at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation – this, as the channel indicates, is stated in the telegram Anodina sent to the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Igor Chalik, representing Russia in the Interstate Council. In it, she also expressed surprise at the fact that there were no representatives of the Ministry of Transport and other countries at the working session of the council, as well as at the fact that the department announced that the session was allegedly disrupted by the IAC. As a result, only representatives of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan arrived at the headquarters of the committee, the quorum was not reached, and the event was postponed to January 27.
At the same time, the Ministry of Transport sent the MAK the minutes of the extraordinary session of the Intercouncil, which was held in the building of the ministry under the chairmanship of Chalik (and not Anodina) because of the alleged letter from the MAK about the impossibility of holding it at the headquarters of the committee. By the way, the MAK claims that they did not send such information to the Ministry of Transport. The next session was scheduled for January 17, and as a result, they announced the removal of Anodina from the post of chairman of the IAC.
The meeting held on December 22 at the Ministry of Transport was also not recognized by the IAC, as well as the event held on January 17. The organization also emphasized that Tatyana Anodina is not going to leave the post of head of the committee. Currently, she is in one of the capital’s clinics after undergoing orthopedic surgery. The duties of the head of the IAC in her absence are performed by the first deputy chairman Viktor Rukhlinsky.
According to lawyers whose opinion Kommersant refers to, in accordance with labor legislation, an employee who is on sick leave cannot be dismissed from his position.
long background
The source of the publication in the aviation industry believes that the Ministry of Transport decided to take such a step and tried to completely take control of the IAC due to the difficult international situation and the lack of attention from foreign regulators. In addition, the state of affairs could be influenced by the desire to obtain leverage on partners from the CIS countries that are members of the IAC.
Initially, relations between the ministry and the IAC were not the easiest, but a clear conflict originates in 2015. This happened shortly after the Boeing 737 crash in Kazan. Having completed the investigation of the air incident, the committee came to the conclusion that the design flaws of the aircraft led to the tragedy, and suspended the operating certificates for the Boeing 737. The Federal Air Transport Agency, in turn, saw no reason to suspend the operation of aircraft of this type, and the IAC fell upon agency with accusations of inaction that could affect flight safety. According to the publication, the industry has an opinion that the roots of the conflict are related to the crisis around the Transaero airline in 2014: its main owner was the son of Anodina Alexander Pleshakov, and the chairman of the MAK herself owned 3% of the shares of the bankrupt air carrier.
The acute phase of the conflict between the transport department and the MAK ended for the committee with the deprivation of some of its powers. The government redistributed the functions of certification of aviation equipment between other departments – the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. However, in practice, in subsequent years it was possible to observe duplication of the functions of the aviation registers of the IAC and the Russian Federation.
Logical ending
As the source of the publication, close to the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, draws attention, the events unfolding at the present time are “a logical continuation of the decision of 2015. In his opinion, such a step was taken to “harmonize and unify certification work in the country,” since the existence of two parallel aviation registers in the Russian Federation looked somewhat strange.
Some of the newspaper’s interlocutors believe that certification was the key factor that forced the Ministry of Transport to act in this way. In addition, it is possible that the authorities may be interested in luring certification specialists who still work in the committee into the structures of the Federal Air Transport Agency. But there is another opinion, according to which the Ministry of Transport is very interested in subordinating the IAC and creating a controlled body to investigate air incidents in its person.
In all likelihood, now the IAC in its current form, one way or another, will lose its meaning and cease to exist. The renewed body will be able to certify exclusively Russian equipment, and other countries that have signed the agreement will gradually move into the sphere of influence of European and American regulators, including the investigation of aviation accidents.