“I respect this man. He is a good guy, but he should not remain the Governor of Chukotka,” Mr. Stepashin said. “His hobby is football, and let him enjoy it, but he should not experiment with the region and its people,” he added.

Mr. Stepashin came to this conclusion after the Audit Chamber had inspected the Chukotka Autonomous Region. “Based on the results of the inspection, I can say that Abramovich lets the President of Russia down very much,” he stressed.

The Audit Chamber established that the Chutka region was bankrupt. The region’s debt was RUR 9.3bn as of January 1, 2004. This is 2.5 times more than regional revenues (RUR 3.9bn).

However, the administration of the Chukotka Autonomous region denies insolvency. In a statement issued on May 23, the region’s leadership said the region was able to pay all its debts. According to the statement, the current regional administration had managed to reduce the budget deficit seven-fold. According to local authorities, the regional government succeeded in restructuring the region’s debts to the Russian Finance Ministry and the Russian Agency for State Reserves, and also in paying back loans to a number of commercial banks.