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Victor Kondratov, President Yeltsin’s representative to Primorye and chief of the local Federal Security Bureau office, has increased his powers in the krai under a new decree from Russia’s leader.

Kondratov read the decree to reporters at a press conference July 14 in FSB headquarters. The decree, which pertains to presidential representatives throughout the country, expands their roles as power brokers in the krais, oblasts and other regions throughout the country:
http://vn.vladnews.ru/issue146/Special_reports/President_Yeltsins_decree

In addition to his main task – coordinating activities of federal executive agencies – Kondratov now can:

• Suggest candidates for federal awards and top military ranks. He can also actually give the awards on behalf of the president.
  
• Use specialists of the federal agencies for checking and analyzing the affairs of companies and organizations.
  
• Demand access to and documents from any federal, krai-level, or municipal organization within his territory.

Kondratov also discussed his current work. Answering reporters’ questions, he confirmed that there is corruption in the krai administration, but he refused to give further details.

Contacted by phone, Ilsiyar Malysheva, head of the krai press center, said, “He has been working at this position for six years. Why didn’t he find anything before? Or if he has found something now, why doesn’t he give the case to the courts?”

Kondratov has taken on some responsibilities traditionally belonging to governors. He recently visited Moscow – just a few days after Primorye Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko did – and returned with checks from the federal government. Kondratov obtained 20 billion rubles ($3.5 million) for salaries at Zvezda factory in Bolshoi Kamen. And he promised that by August 15, doctors and teachers would get 56 billion rubles ($9.8 million) in back payments.

A Kondratov spokesman read a statement from krai prosecutor Valery Vasilenko about the documents the FSB confiscated in June from the krai’s Department for Regional Policy Forecast. The department plotted ways to discredit the mayor and influence federal deputies, Kondratov said after the raid. In his statement, Vasilenko said the department exceeded its authority, but it did not commit a crime, since it didn’t implement its ideas.

Natalia Vstovskaya, Governor Nazdratenko’s press secretary said at a press conference on July 16 that the confiscated documents were used only inside the department. “They never went to the governor’s desk,” Vstovskaya said. Department head Alexandr Koschiyenko refused to speak to a reporter despite repeated phone calls.

Kondratov said that due to the governmental help, Primorye is not the worst region of Russia economically. “The government donates money to us constantly, but we keep begging,” he said.

However, he is unhappy with the state of medical care and said competent people must put things in order at the federal level.

Primorye faces other stumbling blocks to stability. Federal energy policy is not fully implemented since the krai and the city administrations can’t come to any agreements on the issues.

The same day after the press conference Kondratov met Nazdratenko, but the results were not released to the press.