From Petrov to Medvedev
In the nearly 13 years of its existence, the administration of the Russian president has gone from being a political monolith similar in many respects to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (TsK KPSS) to a bureaucratic structure whose activities are based on rivalry between various political groups.
The president of Russia’s administration was established by decree of RF President Boris Yeltsin of July 19, 1991.
Yury Petrov, who had worked along with Yeltsin on the Sverdlov Regional Committee of the KPSS in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was appointed as the first head of the administration on August 5, 1991. Petrov tried to make the presidential administration into a counterpart of the TsK KPSS with a clear-cut official hierarchy, but without much success. As a result, three main centers of influence appeared in the administration: Yury Petrov’s staff, the office of RF Secretary of State Gennady Burbulis, and the control department headed by Valery Makharadze. These three subdivisions reported directly to the president. In May 1992, the president’s secretariat was reorganized into an administrative office headed by first assistant Viktor Ilyushin. It was given the responsibility of preparing the president’s daily routine and the makeup and priority of his visitors, which dramatically increased the importance of this structure.
Sergei Filatov replaced Yury Petrov in January 1993; and on February 22, Boris Yeltsin issued a decree approving a new administrative structure. One of the most important consequences of this reorganization was a sharp expansion of the circle of presidential assistants. Dmitry Ryurikov was responsible for international issues; Aleksandr Livshits, for the economy; Georgy Satarov, for interaction with parliament and the parties; and Mikhail Krasnov, for legal issues. In addition to these four, Mark Urnov, head of the analytical department, and Boris Kuzyk, the presidential assistant for military and technical cooperation with foreign countries, also had considerable influence in the Kremlin. However, Viktor Ilyushin remained the first and chief assistant with almost unlimited “access to the body”. In February 1994, Filatov made another attempt at reforming the administration by strengthening its analytic character, but never issued the prepared decree: it did not suit Ilyushin or the new third center of influence in the administration, Aleksandr Korzhakov, head of the president’s Security Service.
On January 15, 1996, former governor of Krasnodar Territory,
Nikolai Egorov, became head of the presidential administration. This was followed two weeks later by another reorganization of the administration, which considerably simplified its structure and reduced staff by 20%. Instead of 43 independent subdivisions, there were 6 main administrations whose heads received the status of deputy heads of the administration, one of whom received the status of first deputy head. However, even after this reorganization, two “pillars” still remained in the administration: Viktor Ilyushin and Aleksandr Korzhakov. Each of them had his own vision of the administration, but Yeltsin, acting within the context of the well-known system of “checks and balances”, did not allow either of them to “get too far ahead”.
On July 15, 1996,
Anatoly Chubais became head of the presidential administration and immediately proposed yet another reorganization of the presidential apparatus. A presidential decree issued on July 25, 1996, considerably broadened the powers of the head of the administration. The president’s administrative office, protocol office, and press service were transferred to his jurisdiction, along with the president’s assistants, who had previously reported directly to the president. Chubais’ time as head of the presidential administration was also marked by the scandalous firing of Korzhakov from the position of head of the president’s Security Service, the appointment of Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko, as presidential advisor, and the appearance of St. Petersburgers in the circle of federal department heads, i.e., Aleksei Kudrin, who became deputy head of the administration and head of the Main Control Department, and Vladimir Putin, who was appointed deputy head of the president’s executive office.
On March 11, 1997, journalist and former presidential assistant
Valentin Yumashev became head of the administration. Two weeks later, Vladimir Putin (who also became head of the Main Control Department after Kudrin left the government) and Sergei Yastrzhembsky were appointed deputy heads of the administration. In September 1997, Yumashev managed to get two of the nine presidential assistants fired, i.e., Georgy Satarov and Lev Sukhanov ; and in Feburary 1998, Yeltsin issued a decree on reorganizing and reducing his administration, as a result of which nearly 100 people in the Kremlin and Old Square lost their jobs, including presidential assistants Yury Baturin and Boris Kuzyk. In fall 1998, when the State Duma twice refused to confirm Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister after the default and Yeltsin was forced to name Evgeny Primakov as head of the government, Yumashev also obtained the dismissals of the “conspirators” who had proposed Yury Luzhkov for the post of prime minister, namely, secretary of the Security Council Andrei Kokoshin and the president’s press secretary, Sergei Yastrzhembsky. Other opponents of the “Chernomyrdin line”, i.e., deputy heads of the administration Evgeny Savostyanov and Mikhail Komissar, were fired later. In this same period, Yunashev’s economic advisor, Aleksandr Voloshin, who had gained a reputation as one of businessman Boris Berezovsky’s closest associates, was appointed deputy head of the administration.
On December 7, 1998,
Nikolai Bordyuzha replaced Valentin Yumashev. In his first three months as head of the administration, he managed to eliminate the jobs of one of his deputies (the unlucky person was Aleksei Ogarev, who was responsible for questions of military and technical cooperation with foreign countries) and four presidential advisors (including national affairs advisor Emil Pain and the president’s former speechwriter, Lyudmila Pikhoi).
Aleksandr Voloshin became head of the administration on March 19, 1999. He was the one involved in carrying out “operation successor”, which shifted Vladimir Putin (who had already left the post of deputy head of the administration) from the position of head of the FSB to the post of prime minister, then acting president, and finally nationally elected head of state. Fundamental changes in the structure of the presidential administration connected with the appearance of the institution of authorized presidential representatives in seven federal districts took place in May 2000 after Putin had already been elected president.
Voloshin’s main operating principle as head of the Kremlin apparatus was the same system of checks and balances that Yeltsin had used. On the one hand, during this period, the “family” group represented by Sergei Prikhodko, Aleksandr Abramov, Vladislav Surkov, and Dzhakhan Pollyeva strengthened its position, with Surkov playing a special role as the person responsible for party building, interaction with parliament, the Central Election Committee, and the media, and topical problems of regional consolidation (Surkov headed the working group that prepared the legislative foundations for the merger of Perm Region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area). On the other hand, people promoted from the St. Petersburg group, including Igor Sechin, Viktor Ivanov, Dmitry Kozak, and Dmitry Medvedev, appeared among Voloshin’s deputies.
President Putin fired Voloshin on October 30, 2003, and appointed
Dmitry Medvedev as the new head of his administration. Medevedev’s previous job as first deputy head of the administration went to Dmitry Kozak, and former presidential assistant Igor Shuvalov became Medvedev’s deputy. “Chekists” (i.e., former members of the security services) Sechin and Ivanov kept their jobs as deputy heads of the administration. After the government reorganization, Dmitry Kozak became head of the White House staff. On March 25, 2004, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the new structure of the administration.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
