National Project Head Quits

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has relieved of his duties Boris Kovalchuk, head of the government's national projects department and the son of billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, after he requested to step down, the government said.

Kovalchuk, 31, was appointed to then-Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's office in 2006 to head work on the multibillion-dollar national projects. His father, Yury, is a close acquaintance of Putin and chairman of Bank Rossiya.

A source in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who oversees the national projects, said Kovalchuk played a relatively minor role because much of the work on the four projects was done by the relevant government departments, Vedomosti reported on its web site.