Russia will abolish Rosgrantitsa

President Vladimir Putin has approved a proposal from Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s to abolish Rosgranitsa, the federal agency responsible for the border facilities, and transfer its functions to the Ministry of Transport, RIA Novosti reports.

According to Medvedev, most of the responsibilities Rosgrantisa has are connected to transport, and the ministry would be able to take these over without any loss in quality.

The Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border Facilities was set up in October 2007.

“The Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border Facilities was responsible for construction and exploitation of border check points in ports and airports and on roads. The Minsitry of Transport will fully cope with this”, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on his Facebook account. 

Rosgrantisa has lately been involved in a large corruption scandal in Russia. In March 2015 the General Prosecutor1s Office charged the agency in extravagance in organizing business trips and purchase of cars for the leadership, and for inequality in payments for leaders and other workers.

Rosgrantisa’s former head Dmitry Bezdelov was arrested in Italy in October 2014 after he had been put on the international wanted list. Bezdelov was suspected in Russia of embezzling one billion rubles (about €11,6) while implementing a federal program. Russia has been  seeking extradition from Italy of Bezdelov, and in the end of January 2016 Italian authorities finally agreed on this, Kommersant writes.