Putin revived State Fisheries Committee to speed up reforms

On 24 September 2007, along with approval of the new Cabinet (as proposed by recently appointed Prime-Minister Viktor Zubkov), Russia's President Putin ordered that the fishery industry should be now guided by the revived State Fisheries Committee removing the sector out of the jurisdiction of the nation's Ministry of Agriculture headed by Alexey Gordeyev.

The committee is in fact a smaller-scale ministry and its emergence is seen as a signal of the government's will to speed up reforms in the industry.

Once main body of Russia's fishery industry has got probably the richest history of reforms. More specifically, in 1992 the Fisheries Committee under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture was transformed into the Federal Fisheries Committee which in 1996 obtained the status of the State Fisheries Committee. In 1997 it was liquidated and its functions were entrusted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. However, in 1998 the State Fisheries Committee was revived and worked until its liquidation in 2004. In June 2004 the Federal Fisheries Agency was established as part of the Ministry of Agriculture.