MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - The ex-head of Russia's now defunct state electricity monopoly said on Sunday that the findings by the industrial safety watchdog fully reflected technical causes of a recent disaster at the country's largest hydropower plant.
Rostekhnadzor announced on October 3 the results of a probe into the causes of the August 17 disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station that destroyed a turbine hall and killed 75 people. Rostekhnadzor said Anatoly Chubais was among those responsible for the accident.
"I believe that Rostekhnadzor's conclusions reflect fully enough direct technical causes of the disaster. As for my responsibility, I am responsible for everything that was happening in the sector when I was in charge of it. And the death of 75 of my fellow power engineers is a severe tragedy for me personally," Chubais said.
Chubais admitted on Saturday he was obliged to commission the country's largest hydropower plant in 2000 despite problems that might have caused its recent wreckage.
"I believe I was obliged as the head of UES of Russia to sign an acceptance report for the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in 2000," Chubais told RIA Novosti.
He admitted that energy producers were then facing high risks over a lack of funding.
However, Chubais said, suspending the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant that started operating on Siberia's Yenisei River in the 1970s, over a lack of investment in the replacement of hydraulic wheels "would have been a catastrophe to the Siberian economy and millions of people living there" back nine years ago.
Chubais, who has held a number of influential posts since the 1990s but has always been unpopular with public, was appointed head of Russia's State Nanotechnology Corporation last September.
