Yesterday, 31 January, Sukhoi general director Mikhail was nominated to the post of the president of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).

The name of Pogosyan was suggested by Arkady Dvorkovich, chancellor of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. He spoke to the press shortly after the wire agencies brought the news of UAC previous head, Alexey Fedorov, revealed of his duty. Apparently, the decision was made earlier this month, but Dmitry Medvedev waited with its announcement until the January 31 meeting at Nizhny Novgorod. Once there, the Russian president urged industry leaders to boost spending on research and development and pay more attention to patents and licenses to Russian inventions in new technologies. He said he is not happy with the top managers of many Russian large state-run companies and named Aeroflot among those.

According to the Russian media, Medvedev made principal decision on the changes in the UAC leadership when he was on the tour to Jordan. There he spoke to King Abdallah the Second on the much delayed delivery of Ilyushin Il-76MF air lifters. This discussion made things worse for Alexey Fedorov and eventually led to his resignation. Mikhail Pogosyan is yet to be approved by UAC’s board of directors which is going to assemble on 3 February.