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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:47

Ignalina NPP CEO refuses to say if he'll resign amid abuse suspicions

BC, Vilnius, 09.01.2018.Print version
Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant CEO Darius Janulevicius, suspected by law-enforcement bodies of involvement in a non-transparent auction of the plant's assets, refuses to comment on whether he intends to step down, saying that he will wait for the energy ministry's decision, informs LETA/BNS.

"I'd rather not comment. The ministry has stated its position. The ministry is my boss and I listen to its position," he told BNS.


Janulevicius would not comment on the suspicions brought against him either.


Law-enforcement officials in late December completed their pre-trial investigation into an auction of the Ignalina plant's assets worth over 1.5 million euros, held in 2014, and brought formal suspicions of abuse against six people, including Janulevicius and Osvaldas Ciuksys, a former CEO of the Ignalina NPP.


The Energy Ministry does not comment on the situation, at least for now. Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas plans to meet with Janulevicius this week, the minister's spokeswoman, Aurelija Vernickaite, told BNS.


International donors, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which have been funding the plant's closure projects worth hundreds of millions of euros, have a positive opinion about the Ignalina NPP's performance of recent years in decommissioning the Soviet-era nuclear power facility.


Janulevicius took over the helm of the Ignalina NPP in March 2013. At the end of the same year, the plant reached a final agreement with the Russian-owned German contractor Nukem on the continuation of certain costly projects that had stalled for several years.

 






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