MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russian Railways (RZD) on Friday rejected allegations that the state monopoly willfully inflates rail transport prices, Prime news agency reported.
Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) head Igor Artemyev on Tuesday criticized RZD for hiking cargo tariffs to “some of the highest levels in the world.”
Responding to the criticism, RZD head Vladimir Yakunin said the allegation was groundless, since tariffs are set by the government with the participation of all parties concerned.
“We do not pluck those figures out of thin air in our offices,” he wrote on his blog. “Moreover, price levels are always a compromise decision, which has never worked in favor of RZD.”
The FAS has made a lot of complaints against RZD in the past, “but most of them have been ruled invalid in court,” Yakunin said.
Yakunin has found himself under attack from several different directions in recent weeks. Last Friday, he had to fight off corruption allegations from opposition protest leader Alexei Navalny, and last month a hoax press release announced he had been dismissed and replaced as the CEO of RZD.
