The former Education Minister of Buryatia, Bair Zhalsanov, has secured his bureaucratic future. However, the conflict is not over yet.
The Soviet District Court of Ulan-Ude rejected the prosecutor’s office of Buryatia’s request to remove Minister of Education and Science Bair Zhalsanov from his position, citing “loss of confidence” as the reason. Now the former minister may return to a leading role in the Buryatia Ministry of Education. Additionally, the department lacked a permanent leader. However, the supervisory authority plans to challenge this ruling.
In 2021, Zhalsanov voluntarily left his ministerial position after the prosecutor’s office uncovered a conflict of interest involving a substantial subsidy received by the Tuyaa kindergarten, which employed close relatives of the former Education Minister (further details available here).
“The conflict of interest was that the founder of the kindergarten is the father of Bair Zhalsanov, the functions of the general director and chief accountant were performed by the sister of the minister’s wife, and the wife works in the kindergarten as a teacher-methodologist,” the press service of the Supreme Court of Buryatia reported at the time.
The department was not content with Zhalsanov’s “voluntary” resignation, so they took legal action and succeeded in changing the wording to “loss of confidence.” As a result, Zhalsanov was barred from holding state or municipal positions.
Despite attempts by the republican authorities to appeal the decision of the initial court, their efforts were futile as the Supreme Court of Buryatia upheld the ruling. In April 2022, Zhalsanov appealed to the Court of Cassation. On June 9, he overturned the decision of the Soviet court and referred the case for a new trial. The subsequent hearing took place on 7 September. Having reviewed the case materials, the court rejected the prosecutor’s office's claim.
Meanwhile, Bair Zhalsanov has been added to the federal list as a former official dismissed due to loss of confidence. He became the 22nd representative from the republic in the register of violators of anti-corruption legislation. The entry in the register, numbered 3907, is dated January 31, 2022.
The return of Bair Zhalsanov as Minister of Education appears more likely than the retention of Valery Pozdnyakov in the leading position, as he has not shown exceptional performance, apart from organizing an unproductive educational forum with top government officials at Baikal. It was not possible to appoint a department head from someone like Pozdnyakov, with no other alternatives, so the Buryatia government will continue to support Zhalsanov. Typically, ethnic Buryats take on leadership roles in the Ministry of Education.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office remains serious and resolute.
There is, however, a wildcard in the department – Dorji Angarkhaev, the head of the committee for economics and personnel policy at the Ministry of Education, who even briefly served as the acting education minister of the republic.
Now, with the prosecutor’s office failing to remove him from power, Zhalsanov will at least attempt to secure a leadership position in an educational institution to receive a salary and possibly continue engaging in dubious activities.
The fate of the Buryat education remains vague. Sovetov Square is silent, the government has not presented a single, at the very least, suitable candidate for the post of head of the Ministry of Education, instead wasting time fighting for Bair Zhalsanov, who increasingly seems to be a “downed pilot”.
