It appears that the nearly year-long conflict surrounding Rybinsk Motors will soon be coming to a close. The State Property Committee will cancel the loans-for-shares auction of 37 percent of the company's stock, the factory will end up without $164 million in investment and its director will remain in position.


But it seems hard times are in store for Rybinsk's adversary, Pyotr Mostovoi, the head of the Federal Bankruptcy Agency. New rumors have surfaced that he is going to be fired. Of course, similar rumors have appeared on more than one occasion.


But now, as the government-created system for out-of-court bankruptcy procedures sits in the midst of crisis, they may become reality ...


Where the government owned stock in a venture and the venture's financial situation was unsatisfactory, the Federal Bankruptcy Agency was supposed to either clean up the company's finances, sell off the state's share in an investment tender or, in the worst cases, declare the venture bankrupt in out-of-court procedures.


But Pyotr Mostovoi's department was unable to accomplish neither the first, the second nor the third. The investment tenders brought in only pennies.


Cleaning up with state funds is impossible in the complete absence of such funds. And mass factory closures are impossible for even more obvious reasons.


The fiasco around Mostovoi and his fight with Rybinsk may end up a convenient basis for his removal: Alexander Kazakov has already complained about the agency chief's "chronic lack of discipline." One can take this as the first semi-official announcement regarding his coming removal.