RUSSIA: VLADIMIR TRAVIN NAMED TO HEAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 003407 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN AND EUR/RUS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/11/2012 TAGS: ENRG KNNP TRGY RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA: VLADIMIR TRAVIN NAMED TO HEAD ATOMENERGOPROM REF: A. MOSCOW 2187 ¶B. MOSCOW 301 ¶C. 2006 MOSCOW 12948 ¶D. MOSCOW 2879 Classified By: EST Counselor Daniel O'Grady. Reasons 1.4(b,d) ¶1. (U) On July 9 PM Mikhail Fradkov signed a government directive approving the charter of the Open Joint Stock Company Atomniy Energopromishlennii Kompleks (AEK) and confirming the membership of its 5-person board of directors. Rosatom director Sergey Kiriyenko will be chairman of the board, which also will include Igor Borovkov, Deputy Director of the Russian Government Administrative Office, and Rosatom deputy directors Vladimir Travin, Tatyana El'fimova, and Ivan Kamenskikh. Travin was named overall Director and CEO of AEK, which is more popularly known as Atomenergoprom. ¶2. (U) On April 27 President Putin signed a decree "On Restructuring the Nuclear and Energy Industry Complex of the Russian Federation" (ref A). That decree split the Russian nuclear industry into three parts: civilian, for-profit; military; and waste management. The decree followed from nuclear sector legislation enacted by the Duma earlier this year (refs B and C) and set in motion a massive reorganization of Russia's nuclear industry. The decree laid out the blueprint for creation of Atomenergoprom, and the directive signed by Fradkov was the next expected, logical step. ¶3. (U) Travin is closely identified with Rosatom director Kiriyenko. He came to Rosatom as an adviser in December 2005, just a month after Kiriyenko was named to direct the agency. In January of this year he was promoted to deputy director with responsibility for Rosatom's financial strategy. Like Kiriyenko, Travin began his career in Nizhniy Novgorod, where he rose to high positions with two banks (Sarovbiznesbank and Garantiya) and two oil companies (Norsi-oil and Transneft). His original background was in experimental nuclear physics, and during the Soviet period he worked as an engineer and later a scientist in the closed nuclear city of Sarov. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Observers have been quick to point out that TVEL and Techsnabexport are not represented in the Atomenergoprom board of directors, a noteworthy fact given that the TVEL board of directors is chaired by Sergey Sobyanin, Chief of the Presidential Administration Staff. Some see this as a sign that Kiriyenko has become so strong in his position at Rosatom that he is able to move his own people forward in the face of seemingly strong competition. Others predict, however, that Sobyanin will be named chairman of the 100 percent state-owned "Rosatom Corporation" that will be created this fall to provide overall management and oversight of the nuclear industry (ref D). ¶5. (C) As the reorganization of Russia's nuclear sector moves forward, we are finding that our contacts at Rosatom are increasingly preoccupied with internal restructuring issues and their personal fates. U.S.-Russia bilateral issues are on the backburner. Our contacts are becoming increasingly difficult to reach, and answers to even simple questions are correspondingly harder to obtain. BURNS