Putin backs justice minister for chief prosecutor

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

MOSCOW, June 19 (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing Justice Minister Yuri Chaika for the politically sensitive job of prosecutor general, news agencies said today.

Putin loyalist Vladimir Ustinov who, as chief prosecutor, played a key part in legal action against jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, resigned in a surprise move on June 2.

His sudden departure fuelled rumours that he had either fallen foul of a new Kremlin anti-graft campaign or was the victim of a shift in the balance of power among Kremlin clans.

Interfax news agency quoted sources in the Federation Council (parliament's upper house), as saying Chaika's candidacy had been presented by the Kremlin and confirmation hearings were scheduled for Friday.

The Federation Council could not be immediately reached for confirmation and Kremlin press officials were not available.

Chaika, 55, is a career prosecutor who spent most of his professional life in provincial posts in Siberia before being summoned to Moscow in 1995 as first deputy prosecutor general.

He was acting prosecutor general for a year from 1998 before handing over the job to Ustinov and becoming justice minister.

He is not associated either with the so-called ''siloviki'' group of hardline advisers around Putin, with whom Ustinov has close links, or the moderates in the leadership.

Ustinov, chief prosecutor since the former KGB spy became prime minister in 1999 and later president, played a key role in the Kremlin chief's consolidation of political power.

His office was central to ruining the private media empire of billionaire Vladimir Gusinsky in 2000, and dealing a fatal blow to Russia's independent media.

In 2004-5 prosecutors carried out legal action against Khodorkovsky, the politically ambitious owner of oil company YUKOS which was eventually ruined by back-tax claims.

Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence after a trial widely seen as politically motivated.

REUTERS SHB VC1512

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