Valentin Mezhevich, first vice chairman of Federation Council Committee on Natural Monopolies

– The appointment of Sergey Shmatko as energy minister is recognition of his merits as manager of Atomstroyexport

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has decreed to divide the Industry and Energy Ministry into two separate ministries. Today, we are beginning to realize that the energy sector needs special attention. Today, the economy and the energy consumption are growing much quicker that the energy production. The key obstacle to quicker development is the shortage of power generating capacities. So, we need an agency that can and will solve this problem.

The appointment of Sergey Shmatko as energy minister is recognition of his merits as the manager of one of the biggest energy company of Russia. Under his management Atomstroyexport has become a company of international level showing very efficient logistic and engineering policies. This experience will certainly help Shmatko in his new office.
 
I think that this appointment has proved that our government gives high priority to nuclear energy and is going to actively develop it. The federal target program for the development of nuclear energy and the general scheme for the allocation of energy facilities in Russia say that by 2020 we should build 26 nuclear reactors in Russia and no less than 12 reactors abroad. This is a very ambitious program. We didn’t build as much even in the times of the Soviet Union.