The shareholding in OAO Koltsovo Airport that currently belongs to Sverdlovsk Region will be offered for sale after 2020, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin said in an interview to Gazeta.ru when asked about how the regional authorities were going to get rid of the airport’s shares as they happen to be the government’s non-core assets.

‘The President is currently signing papers on transferring the shareholding in Koltsovo that belongs to the Russian Federation over to Sverdlovsk Region. Still, what makes you think these shares are non-core assets? All the infrastructure is our core business. What the President meant was that the issue of the shares should be considered later on,’ the Governor said.

‘Firstly, there is not just one but two airports in Sverdlovsk Region, which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and belongs to the Russian Federation; we cannot take over at the moment as the transfer of the shareholding has not been completed yet. Once all the procedures have been finalized, we will create a single shareholding that could be sold to someone. We are not going to hold on to it forever. What’s more, the airport can develop only alongside with the development of the region. For one, our Expo 2010 project, should it be implemented, will build up on the cost of the airport dramatically. So it is then when we will put the shareholding up to auction,’ Misharin explained.