They want to remove the long-lived governor Tkachev or promote him?! Experts weigh the pros and cons. To be or not to be Minister Tkachev's agribusiness? Resignation of Minister of Agriculture Tkachev

News of Krasnodar. News publications write that Alexander Tkachev will leave the post of governor on Wednesday.

As Zhukova, the press secretary of the head of the region, said, she does not have such information. “I do not have official information about any appointments to any other positions of the governor,” the spokeswoman told bbcrussian.com.

She said that all these days Governor Tkachev worked as usual, in the capacity of governor.

The media, which previously wrote about the departure of the head of the region Alexander Tkachev, also reported that he will replace Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fedorov. The publications RBC and Vedomosti wrote about this.

Tkachev's resignation 2015

The publication Gazeta.ru writes that according to one of the good “near-Kremlin” sources, a possible Tkachev's promotion this is just a formality, in fact, this is exactly resignation from the post of governor, so to speak, was removed so as not to interfere, “behind which there is a trail of corruption scandals,” the Telegrafist publication quotes. Along the way, getting rid of the Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fedorov, who had lost confidence.

According to the latest data, today the Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fedorov said goodbye to members of the ministerial leadership, TASS writes about this, citing its sources in the apparatus of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Deputies and assistants of Nikolai Fedorov came to the farewell meeting. At the meeting, Nikolai Fedorov thanked his colleagues for their long collaboration.

However, an official statement on this matter has not yet been made; his assistant Viktor Vasiliev refused to comment on this issue.

Alexander Tkachev, data from Wikipedia

Alexander Nikolaevich Tkachev(born December 23, 1960, Vyselki, Krasnodar Territory, RSFSR, USSR) - Russian statesman and political figure, ex-head of the administration (governor) of the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation, head of the regional branch and member of the bureau of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party. Doctor of Economic Sciences. President of the Kuban football club. Member of the Bureau of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party.

He began his career in agriculture, founded and for a long time headed the largest agro-industrial enterprise in the Krasnodar Territory. He was elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the II and III convocations, was a member of the Agro-Industrial Deputy Group, and was its deputy chairman. In the State Duma of the 3rd convocation he headed the Committee on Nationalities Affairs.

Born on December 23, 1960 in the village of Vyselki, Krasnodar Territory, he graduated from high school No. 2 there. According to the recollection of his class teacher Tkachev, he studied well, sang and played the guitar, and played for the local basketball team. Father - Nikolai Ivanovich Tkachev (b. 1926), in the 1960s - early 1970s he worked as deputy chairman of the Vyselkovsky district executive committee, in 1974 he headed the construction of the Vyselkovsky inter-farm feed mill, and in the 1980s he became its director. In 1978, A. N. Tkachev entered the Krasnodar Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1983 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1983-1986, he worked at the Vyselkovsky off-farm feed mill, headed by his father, first as a heating engineer, then as a boiler room manager and chief mechanic. In 1986-1988 he was the first secretary of the Vyselkovsky district committee of the Komsomol, and was a member of the CPSU.

Who is interested in the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture.

The recent detention of Russian-Ukrainian-Armenian businessman Oleg Mkrtchyan surprised many: why was the former governor and now Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev unable to cover up his old friend, and even a long-term sponsor of the Krasnodar “Kuban”? The most likely reason in our case may be a decrease in the apparatus influence of the official himself. Once upon a time, Tkachev’s position really seemed unshakable, but now the authoritative Minchenko Consulting agency already names him among the five ministers - the main candidates for departure from the government. How did Alexander Nikolaevich Tkachev come to this?

Agricultural monopolies, not farms

At first glance, Tkachev seemed to give no reason to be dissatisfied with himself, always wavering along with the party line, and even ended up on the “Kremlin lists” of the US Treasury for his loyalty. Thus, he most actively spoke out in support of the so-called counter-sanctions - a ban on the import of imported products into the Russian Federation. In addition, it was at Tkachev’s suggestion that food smuggling detected at the border was not returned, but destroyed. As a result, in one year, 7.5 thousand tons of such products were crushed by tractors and burned in ovens. Then Tkachev proposed expanding this practice throughout the country, after which the counterfeit products found began to be destroyed everywhere. Moreover, last fall the minister proposed to “tighten the responsibility for imports and provide for the seizure of not only the products themselves, but also the vehicles that transport them.”

All these measures formally looked very patriotic, but in fact they hardly had any effect. Products have been and continue to be transported from Europe to Russia - except that now seafood comes not from Spain, but from Belarus, where new labels are stuck on the packages. That is, there is an ordinary fiction. In addition, according to Tkachev, “by destroying illegal cargo, we support our manufacturer.” However, at the same time, the same head of the Ministry of Agriculture advocates sharply limiting the permissible number of livestock on private farms at the level of, for example, 20 cows. They say this will help “bring order to the accounting and provision of veterinary records.” This innovation is certainly not in the interests of Russian farmers. Only agricultural monopolists will benefit from its implementation, as they will be able to inflate prices even higher. A classic example is dairy products. As a result of export restrictions, milk prices in the exporting countries of the Czech Republic and Germany fell, but in Russia they increased by almost a third. The “pluses” included enterprises such as Agroholding, which was formally registered to the minister’s relatives.

It is curious that the Agrocomplex corporation, which is controlled by the relatives of Minister Tkachev, has now reached fourth place in Russia in terms of land area - 640 thousand hectares. So the initiatives of the zealous head of the Ministry of Agriculture in fact have that same scent.

Transferring rivers from Altai to China and banning imported wines

The ideas of Alexander Tkachev are truly amazing. Thus, he put forward a project to transfer fresh water from the Altai Territory through the Republic of Kazakhstan to the arid Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The idea of ​​selling water for export in millions of cubic meters (an actual violation of the Law on Environmental Protection) caused amazement among specialists. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Danilov-Danilyan said: “This is an absolutely ill-considered statement for those who understand at least something about water resources.” Fortunately for nature, after that the Altai-Chinese waterway was no longer discussed.

Tkachev showed much greater interest in another drinking product - wine. Back in the summer of 2015, he said that the Ministry of Agriculture was considering the possibility of introducing a ban on the import of foreign wine - even if it is bottled in our country. The Union of Winemakers of Russia immediately responded that this is “a normal practice, and if it is banned, the amount of wine alcohol in the country will immediately fall by a third, because domestic grapes will grow in the required volume only in five years, then it will be possible to think about something like this "

Nevertheless, Tkachev does not abandon his intention to realize his idea. According to him, “Kuban wines have proven themselves very well in quality over the past five years, and the consumption of wine by Russians will have a positive effect on the demographic situation in the country.” The minister also spoke out for active advertising of Russian wines on TV. The leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, went further and proposed a complete ban on the import of foreign alcohol. Of course, such an initiative is doomed to failure, but this increases the chances of a compromise option, for example, a ban on the import of only wine products. Again, by a strange coincidence, the wife of the head of the Ministry of Agriculture owns huge vineyards in the Krasnodar region, and the former first vice-governor of this region, Alexander Remezkov, is now a deputy in the SR faction. The family of business ombudsman and presidential election participant Boris Titov also owns large wineries.

Competitors were offended

Actually, it is precisely what is called a conflict of interest in the apparatus environment that is the main reason for dissatisfaction with the minister in the empyrean of power. The Agrokompleks company, owned by the Tkachev family, is sharply increasing its volumes every year. It is already confidently one of the most powerful agricultural corporations, and its rise continues. The agricultural empire, which is controlled by the minister's relatives, has now reached fourth place in Russia in terms of land volume - 640 thousand hectares. However, competitors who feel their interests are threatened also have their friends in the corridors of power. So many would probably like the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, even if it happens, Tkachev will not have to starve. At the moment, the Agrokompleks company, owned by his family, unites more than 60 enterprises and over 600 stores, generating revenue of almost 50 billion rubles a year. In fact, this is a family latifundia, or, in Russian, an estate, where almost 25 thousand souls, that is, people, work. Apparently, it was not without reason that the German newspaper Handelsblatt called Kuban “a feudal territory without civilized laws” and Tkachev - “a monopoly oligarch of the region.” In turn, the head of the American company United States Energy Association, David Sweet, who studied the investment attractiveness of Kuban, noted that “Tkachev is the largest landowner in Europe, and in the United States there is not a single person who owns 200 thousand hectares of land.” Another thing is that in Russia capital is traditionally provided by power and its loss, as a rule, entails the loss of assets. So we will have to seriously fight for a post in the new government.

Will Tkachev hold out?

In general, if someone wants to bring him down, they won’t even have to look for dirt on the minister - his past is so checkered. As the son of the director of a feed mill, he began his working career under the supervision of his father, and at the age of 29 succeeded him. Then the privatization of the plant happened, the establishment of the Agrokompleks company on its basis and the takeover of surrounding enterprises. As evil tongues say, this could not always happen in a highly moral way - an illustration of business morals in the Kuban is the notorious Kushchevka, which was ruled by the Tsapka bandits (by the way, some assets after the defeat of the gang also went to Agrokompleks).

From 1995 to 2000, Tkachev sat as a representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the State Duma, heading the Committee on Nationalities Affairs. From this post, he stepped into the gubernatorial ranks - he opposed the sale of land, putting forward the slogan “Kuban - for Kuban residents!” Soon after this, he left the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and joined United Russia, which became the party in power.

Tkachev quickly became famous in his new post. Thus, he proposed creating filtration camps for illegal migrants and allowing night police raids in places of compact residence of internally displaced persons, and also stated: “There is no place in the Kuban for Gypsies, Meskhetian Turks, Kurds and dissidents.”

In 2015, Tkachev was appointed Minister of Agriculture. Some called it a promotion, while others believed that for the all-powerful head of Kuban, a change of job was a minus. According to Versiya, during the preparation for the 2014 Olympics, Tkachev spoiled relations, by not dividing construction contracts, with influential entrepreneurs, including the head of Rosselkhozbank, Dmitry Patrushev, the son of the Secretary of the Security Council, ex-director of the FSB. According to the Ruspres agency, the Patrushev and Tkachev families previously found a common language in business projects, for example, in 2016, Rosselkhozbank sold several elevators to Agrocomplex at a loss to itself. But already in September 2017, Alexander Tkachev left the post of chairman of the supervisory board of Rosselkhozbank, his place was taken by Arkady Dvorkovich. Tkachev also did not join the current supervisory board of the council, which he previously headed for two years.

Alexander Tkachev and Sergey Mitin: handed over the post - accepted the post?

Immediately after the holidays, the authors of several popular political channels in the Telegram messenger began reporting interesting rumors. Allegedly, the governor of the Novgorod region, Sergei Mitin, will soon take the chair of the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Alexander Tkachev, and the latter - the plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Ustinov. Such information rarely appears (and in the case of a plenipotentiary representative, it is repeated again) without a basis, so FederalPress found out whether these speculations have any basis.

On Monday evening, anonymous people from the “Metodichka” and “Nezygar” channels began spreading the information, and was later picked up by political scientist Leonid Davydov (the “Davydov.Index” channel). The situation with Mitin is interesting because at the beginning of this year, rumors appeared in the media that he might not make it to the 2017 elections, which is facilitated by several factors. Thus, journalists claimed that the Novgorod region became the first region to actually commit a technical default last year. The region's debts are growing. The housing and communal services system is in a deplorable state, and the situation has remained unchanged for many years. In the region, corruption scandals occur with enviable regularity, in which, one way or another, local leaders at all levels are involved, journalists note. However, a number of experts, on the contrary, insist that Vladimir Putin’s trip to the region during the New Year holidays is a sign of goodwill towards the governor.

By the way, this is not the first time that rumors about Tkachev’s departure from the Ministry of Agriculture to the southern embassy have appeared. They were already actively discussed in the first half of last year, when the media reported that simultaneously with the change of the head of the plenipotentiary representative of the Southern Federal District, there should be a change in the capital of the plenipotentiary representative from Rostov to Krasnodar (sources assured RIA FederalPress that they had seen documents for the administration building of the Western District of Krasnodar), and The Crimean Peninsula will join the Southern Federal District. However, of all the rumors, only the last one ultimately came true. Actually, the press service of the embassy in the Southern Federal District “FederalPress” once again denied the rumors, noting that they have no basis. “Such speculations have appeared periodically before. However, both then and now, they are only speculation,” the press service reported.

Rumors about Ustinov's resignation have been circulating for so long that they do not surprise anyone.

According to an expert interviewed by the editors, who wished to remain anonymous, Tkachev’s return to the South is now unlikely. The expert noted that the appointment of the former governor to the place of head of the plenipotentiary representative of the Southern Federal District will automatically lead to an imbalance in the existing system of power in the plenipotentiary mission, worsen the positions of the heads of several regions at once (Don, Kuban, Kalmykia, Volgograd region) and will cause intra-clan wars. “It is doubtful that Putin would jeopardize the political stability of the South for the sake of the interests of one of his officials,” the analyst said.

We would like to add that there are no serious signals indicating that Alexander Tkachev is having problems in his current position. Moreover, he continues to place his creatures in significant positions. In particular, on the eve of the new year, acting Rector of the Temiryazev Academy, ex-vice governor of Kuban Galina Zolina.

Each of these rearrangements seems quite likely, but the whole chain looks somewhat strange, says the head of the “Political Expert Group” Konstantin Kalachev. “As for Sergei Mitin, he has extensive experience as a federal official, is a good governor, is capable of heading any ministry and showing successful work there,” Kalachev commented to FederalPress. The expert noted that, in his opinion, the head of the region himself is unlikely to seek a new position now, but will be ready to carry out the president’s order. The official’s age (65 years old) will not interfere with taking on a new position, since he has excellent health, Mr. Kalachev shares.

“At the same time, Tkachev has proven himself to be an effective minister who is now implementing an import substitution program. The record harvest also speaks in its favor. However, the minister has a serious problem related to a conflict of interest,” clarifies the head of the “Political Expert Group.” According to him, Alexander Tkachev can perceive the entire agricultural business as his area of ​​interest. “And here the minister does not fit into the current trend of limiting and self-limiting the business interests of our high authorities,” the expert adds. “And we all know that he and his immediate family have a lot of business interests in the agricultural sector. Those. the current minister is unstable to compromising evidence.”

Konstantin Kalachev also noted that Vladimir Ustinov has established himself as a high-class official, who, nevertheless, “overstayed his welcome” in his current post. “The activity of the plenipotentiary and plenipotentiary representatives is now lower than necessary,” the expert believes. – Therefore, I will not be surprised by any of the agreed upon appointments. But I cannot be sure that such reshuffles will occur in exactly this sequence,” adding that the position of all three of these people under discussion today is not sufficiently stable.

If we talk about the personalities mentioned in these rumors, it is worth noting that Sergei Mitin worked in the government for many years. He was Deputy Minister of Economy in the governments of Viktor Chernomyrdin (in 1997) and Sergei Kiriyenko (April - August 1998), in the cabinet of Sergei Stepashin (in 1999) and Vladimir Putin (in 1999 - 2000). The new millennium was marked by a new round of Mitin’s career, journalists wrote. So, in 2000, Sergei Gerasimovich became Deputy Minister of Industry, Science and Technology in the government of Mikhail Kasyanov. He worked as director of the industry department and in the ministry of industry and energy. In 2004, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the government of Mikhail Fradkov. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin appointed Mitin as acting governor of the Novgorod region. Later, Vladimir Putin proposed that the regional legislative assembly approve Mitin’s candidacy for the post of governor, and in 2012 he was elected governor of the Novgorod region.

Sergei Mitin has extensive experience in government, but the question is: does he want to update it?

The well-known Minister of Agriculture, Alexander Tkachev, previously headed the Krasnodar Territory for 15 years. As governor, he became famous for his scandalous nationalist statements, and in 2010, the region made waves throughout Russia when a criminal gang in the village of Kushchevskaya slaughtered a farmer’s family, including four young children. As a result, many security forces in the region lost their posts. Tkachev is also remembered in connection with the flood in Krymsk, where more than 170 people died in 2012 because the authorities did not notify of the emergency. According to observers, Tkachev’s main achievement in his new post as head of the Ministry of Agriculture was the initiative to destroy sanctioned products. Many credit him with the process of import substitution that has been going on in this industry for several years. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly announced successes in the Russian agricultural industry. Thus, at his final press conference in 2016, he spoke about the unique successes of the country’s agriculture.

At the same time, journalists repeatedly reported on the governor’s old subordinates. And the holding company Agrocomplex im. N.I. Tkachev made many large purchases last year and was among the country’s largest latifundists (the company acquired the rice assets of the bankrupt Razgulay group, two elevators of the Nastyusha grain company, which it gave in 2009 along with eight others to pay off the debt to Rosselkhozbank. The agricultural complex has agreed with the same RSHB to acquire the financially struggling Akashevo agricultural holding, a top-7 poultry meat producer, and is also purchasing 100% of the shares of Parus Agro Group LLC. This year the Tambov Sugar Company has already become known).

Alexander Tkachev got used to constant rumors about his resignation even in his previous post, which he held for 15 years

And Vladimir Ustinov has held the position of presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District since 2008, where he was transferred from the post of Minister of Justice. Before that, from 1999 to 2006, he worked as the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, where, among other things, he became famous for his participation in organizing the trial of Khodorkovsky and the management of Yukos. Let us note that when information about Ustinov’s departure previously appeared in the media, many associated it with his health problems. However, confirmation of this was not provided at that time.

Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev will soon resign. Opinions about who will take his place vary widely. It is not yet clear whether the government will risk changing the minister before the elections or will wait until they are held and, at the same time, the government is replaced. Alexander Tkachev himself is tipped from the post of minister to the post of plenipotentiary representative for the Southern Federal District. They can supposedly replace the current plenipotentiary representative Ustinov, who has been planning to retire since the summer. For the minister, this outcome is not too bad - part of his family’s business (read: the minister’s business) concerns the same Krasnodar region. However, he, of course, would like to control the Central Federal District, where another ex-Minister of Agriculture, Alexei Gordeev, now “reigns”. Two candidates are allegedly being considered to replace Tkachev himself in the presidential administration. And both of them, as usual, are very dubious. Successors in line Recently, rumors have been actively circulating that the post of Comrade Tkachev in the new ministry could be taken by Comrade Grudinin, a presidential candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who is predicted to lose in advance. And supposedly the head of the state farm walked to them. Lenin did this only in order to get some good position based on the election results. True, until now, the most likely position for him was the position of governor of the Moscow region, but, as they say, why is the AP not joking? Grudinin, of course, has already shown himself to be an effective manager using the example of a state farm. But it is simply not possible to transfer this practice to the entire country. And given the fact that he simply sold off part of the state farm’s land, such a successor does not look like a good idea. In addition, the presidential candidate back in 2015 spoke in support of Minister Tkachev, when he had been in office for just over six months. But the version with Grudinin is more like a political joke. At the same time, according to rumors in political circles, the post of head of the Ministry of Agriculture may be transferred to Sergei Levin, deputy minister. Levin is a former head of the United Grain Company; in 2012-2015 he served as an adviser to the Prime Minister. That is, this candidate is an obvious creation of Dmitry Medvedev. And if Tkachev’s resignation takes place after the elections, and Medvedev retains the post of prime minister in the new government, then such a situation is most likely. At the same time, on the sidelines, they do not hesitate to declare that Tkachev and Levin are in open confrontation. Perhaps Tkachev doesn’t like the fact that his right hand is actually the prime minister’s right hand. Therefore, Medvedev knows about everything that happens in the ministry, including “undercover” events that are not created for outside eyes and ears. In general, for Tkachev it looks as if a spy has appeared in his department, whom he exposed, but cannot expel. If Levin comes to the post of Minister, Tkachev will immediately lose the opportunity to push the interests of his agribusiness through the ministry. And this definitely doesn’t make him happy. At the same time, the owner of a large agricultural holding, poultry farms and vineyards in the Krasnodar Territory can most likely only laugh at the “ambitious” strawberry producer Grudinin. Naturally, the minister does not see a better candidate than his own. It’s just that he, with his impudence, seems to already be in everyone’s hearts – including the AP’s. Potato crisis At the end of the year, most Russians sum up the results of the year. Minister Tkachev did not particularly talk about the results of the year for his department - at least publicly. Well, we can do it for him. For example, at the end of 2017, Russia began to purchase potatoes. Yes, not from friendly Belarus, for example, but from France! Sanctioned potatoes. Exorbitantly expensive. This is attributed to the cold summer, as a result of which the harvest decreased by as much as 40%! But experts say that this is not about a crop failure, but about a banal lack of storage conditions. And only because of this, Russia can lose 2% of GDP on vegetables, despite the fact that all agriculture provides only 4.5% of GDP! The situation with wheat is even stranger: a large harvest led to a collapse in prices, causing the United States to suffer. Tkachev rejoiced - the Americans were defeated! But he, in fact, also defeated domestic farmers, who were left to either throw the grain right there in the fields or sell it at a loss. In the Novosibirsk region alone, the cost of 1 ton of grain was 6,300 rubles, and the average price on the market was 4,800 rubles. So hurray for Minister Tkachev! Agribusiness of the Agricultural Minister However, he still manages his business more carefully. Of course, billions of rubles should flow into the accounts of the Tkachev family without interruption! So it spins as best it can. For example, in November 2017, Agrocomplex named after. N.I. Tkacheva acquired a chain of food stores “Products at Home” in Crimea. Interestingly, he made a deal with the Ukrainian retailer ATB-Market. But could a holding directly connected with the minister make deals with Ukrainian oligarchs? Maybe he will then buy something from Poroshenko? But at least the deal went through fairly. Because Tkachev still remembers the acquisition of the Akashevskaya poultry farm, which is more like a raider takeover with the participation of security forces. The security forces, however, according to competent sources, were not from Tkachev, but from Patrushev - the minister also managed to quarrel with the head of Rosselkhozbank. So there is someone to advocate for his resignation. And this is not all of Tkachev’s merits in the wake of business. At one time, for example, he managed to acquire the Gorki Gorod resort on Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi. Moreover, the purchase was made, in fact, with government money - through a loan from VEB. And she still can’t pay him back. Or doesn't he want to? In January 2017, the first casino opened in Gorki Gorod, for the sake of which the authorities of the Krasnodar region even decided to close the previously opened gambling zone Azovo-City. So the minister’s money is all right, despite his debts to the state in the millions. In general, he will not remain out of work - even after leaving the post of minister. Maybe they will return him to the governorship, maybe they will appoint him as a plenipotentiary envoy. But a business without millions in subsidies and various types of permits can fall apart. However, it will be deserved.

The conflict between Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev And Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Alexander Khinshtein. After Khinshtein asked Tkachev to inform him whether he had reported a possible conflict of interest that may be associated with his family’s large agro-industrial business and his government position, the Minister of Agriculture said that he had contacted the government even before receiving request from a deputy. As the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture reported, this issue will be considered by a special commission, which will issue its conclusion.

Meanwhile, according to the former Deputy Minister of Economy of Russia for the agricultural sector, professor at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ivan Starikov, the conflict will not be settled by Tkachev’s response. According to the interlocutor NSN, the matter will reach the President of Russia.

“Something tells me that the matter will not end with Tkachev’s answer and Alexander Khinshtein, with his meticulousness, will continue to investigate this whole story,” comments NSN situation Ivan Starikov. “And this will be a long-term story that will force the president to either ask Tkachev to vacate his position, or, to put it mildly, to shut up Alexander Khinshtein, which, from my point of view, will be difficult in the pre-election year.”

“Khinshtein, making this request, obviously understood that he would fall into some kind of core and act as a serious irritant for Alexander Tkachev,” notes Ivan Starikov. - It is no secret that Alexander Tkachev and his relatives are the owners of the largest agricultural assets, large landowners in the south of Russia. This is one of the largest milk producers. From this point of view, there is a conflict of interest - the Minister of Agriculture, being a major federal official, is a co-owner of the largest agricultural assets."

At the same time, Starikov believes that there may be another background to this matter.

“The elections are approaching and Alexander Khinshtein wants to be re-elected to the State Duma again. And he understands that he can earn big political profits from this story,” says the former Deputy Minister of Economy of Russia.

As Ivan Starikov notes, there is a high probability that things will come to Tkachev’s resignation.

“Something tells me that several public floggings and candidates are being prepared who need to be thrown into the villas of popular wrath. And in this story, despite the fact that agriculture is the only industry that has shown impressive economic growth, the minister’s participation in the largest agricultural business could put an end to his career,” he concluded in an interview with NSN Ivan Starikov.

As is known today, Alexander Tkachev has headed Agrocomplex JSC since 1993. The co-owner of the company, as of 2002, was the minister’s brother Alexey Tkachev and his father Nikolai Tkachev. However, the minister's father died in 2014 and the current ownership structure is not officially disclosed. The agricultural complex is the largest in the Krasnodar region. It includes more than 60 companies engaged in livestock farming, crop production, poultry farming, feed production, meat processing, storage and logistics. Last year, the agricultural complex became the leader in the milk market.

Alexander Tkachev took over as Minister of Agriculture on April 22, 2015. Previously, he was the governor of the Krasnodar region.