KEMEROVO, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Russian technological safety regulator in a West Siberian region tendered his resignation Thursday, citing a disagreement with his bosses' policies, the Kemerovo Region administration said.
Andrei Malakhov's decision follows two methane blasts that left 150 dead in local mines over the past three months. But Malakhov warned it was too early to discuss the reasons behind his resignation because it had not been officially accepted yet.
Malakhov said he would discuss it with Konstantin Pulikovsky, the head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management, when he arrives in the Kemerovo Region later Thursday.
The federal regulator announced Wednesday that the cause of the latest blast at the Yubileinaya mine in the Kemerovo Region, which killed 39 people May 24, was tampering with the mine's safety systems. This is the same cause as cited for the previous explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine, which claimed 110 lives March 19.
The governor of the Kemerovo Region said he would not sign an inquiry report on the latest explosion, the local administration said.
"The governor thinks the investigation of the mine explosion, which has been conducted by the federal technological safety watchdog, is not objective," the administration said in a news release, commenting on Aman Tuleyev's decision.
Tuleyev has asked Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to appoint an independent commission for the inquiry, and requested that prosecutors investigate the work of the federal regulator.
