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Nurgaliyev says he has undergone presidential certification

The early re-certification of all Interior Ministry personnel, which was part of a large-scale reform of the department, was completed on August 1 this year

MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has said that he has passed President Medvedev’s certification for the post.

Asked if alongside other police he had undergone re-certification, Nurgaliyev replied: "This is a prerogative of the president, I am a member of the government. The president would make an evaluation and take an appropriate decision."

"If there were such a global serious issue, I would be withdrawn from the government, and then appointed again,” he continued. “I have had conversations with the president more than once. Whenever you go to report to the head of the country - it is not easy. He always has in-depth knowledge of our subtleties, he feels competence. He always responds seriously. Any incident requires my report."

"The president would have appreciated and taken appropriate action," said Nurgaliyev. Re-certification for the head of such a department implies serious conversation with the president."

The early re-certification of all Interior Ministry personnel, which was part of a large-scale reform of the department, was completed on August 1 this year. Earlier, it had been expected to be over by June 1, but President Medvedev postponed the deadline. The re-certification lasted for five months.

As a result, to the positions of senior executives of the Interior Ministry 327 persons were appointed, including 73 under the rotation program. The commission for the recertification of senior officers of the Interior Ministry, headed by the presidential chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, scrutinied a list of 3,500 names and denied certification to 21 men. In Russia, alongside the central certification commission there were formed 1,545 commissions at various levels.

The head of state in February 2011 signed a law On the Police to reduce the strength of Interior Ministry personnel by 22 percent to 1.106 million by 2012. Previously, the Interior Ministry hade a total staff of 1.28 million.