DUSHANBE, October 24, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The board of directors of open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1 has suspended powers of the Sangtudinskaya GES-1 director general Vladimir Belov in connection with his transfer to work with the board of OJSC Inter RAO YeES, the Sangtudinskaya GES-1 press center reports.

The Sangtudinskaya GES-1 deputy director general Gennady Rugin has been appointed acting director general of OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 until the next general meeting of the company’s shareholders that is scheduled for late December this year.

Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.  The company was established to complete the construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP).

The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River.  Construction commenced during the Soviet period in the 1980s, but halted in the beginning of the 1990s due to lack of financing when the station was about 20% complete.  An agreement with Russia allowed restarting the construction, with four units entering service in 2008–2009.  The plant was officially commissioned on 31 July 2009.  The plant now reportedly provides around 15% of Tajikistan''s electricity output.

Inter RAO YeES is a Russian energy company engaged in power generation and electricity trading.  It has electricity export and import monopoly in Russia

Decision to create Inter RAO was adopted by the board of Russian unified power company RAO YeES (Unified Energy System of Russia) in August 1996.  The company was formed in May 1997 as a subsidiary of RAO UES with the purpose of consolidating energy generation and sales in foreign markets.  However, Inter RAO started operating only in 2000.  In 2002 it expanded into international energy sales, and in 2003 invested US$350 million in acquisition of foreign assets, notably the power plants in Georgia. In 2003, 40% of shares was sold to Rosenergoatom.