Russia President Vladimir Putin (right) talks to the head of his administration Sergey Sobyanin (left).
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
The Authority’s Publicity Rating
Vlast presents another rating of the publicity of Russian politicians, officials and businessmen, ranked by the frequency of the mention in Russia’s leading mass media. These are the results of the first quarter of 2006. This rating will help you to find out that Andrey Sychev, a hazing victim, is more popular in Russia than Oleg Shcherbinsky, a wrongly convicted driver. You will find out why Sergey Ivanov has a lead over Dmitry Medvedev and whose words rarely differ from deeds.
There are names of politicians, officials and businessmen, their ranks and points here. It seems to be a perfectly ordinary rating. Yet, it is not so. This is an informational cache. This is a kind of transmitter that tells about the nature of current affairs in Russia. We can see the finale of the operation that entries of our rating held in the last quarter. All you have to do is make sure you can decipher the information hidden behind the columns.
It is no difficult to learn that the greatest part of the information transmitted by the Russian press concerned Vladimir Putin. However, the name of the Russian president was present in 7.7 percent of mass media reports this quarter, compared to 8.5 percent in the last quarter of 2005. However, he still leads in the rating of the most public figures. To comparison: Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, who came in second, was mentioned in the press one-third as much as the president. According to newspapers, radio and television news, Vladimir Putin is 3.6 times as important for Russians as inflation, 6.9 times – as oil prices and 18.3 as important as the dollar exchange rate. Is there anything more important that Putin. Of course. It’s Russia, for example. The world Russia and its derivatives can be 7.3 times as much found in the press as the name of the head of the state.
You do not have to be a spy to guess who the main newsmaker in Russia is. Yet, it is quite hard to predict accurately who will become the main newspaper in future. Vladimir Putin has brought the question last November to an equation with two unknown quantities, appointing Sergey Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev Deputy Prime Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, respectively. As a result, Medvedev soared from number 59th to number 8 over months. Ivanov went up to the 4th place from the 6th in the rating for the three last months of 2005. The two officials got ranked one point higher in this rating. We can say now that Ivanov is more popular than Medvedev, or at least, his mention index is three times as high as Medvedev’s.
It would be wrong, however, to jump at the conclusion that Ivanov is a more potent politician to succeed Putin than Medvedev. Let us see what the mention of the two state officials comprise over the past three months. Dmitry Medvedev is treated as Fradkov’s first deputy in 82 percent of the mass media. He is mentioned as the former head of the president’s staff only in 7 percent of reports. It is quite the opposite with Sergey Ivanov. He is mentioned as Defense Minister in 97 percent of the reports. His name is present in 56 percent of materials as Deputy Prime Minister but his title is used only with that of the defense minister.
Thus, we can suggest that Dmitry Medvedev has been referred to as a new Deputy Prime Minister only, whereas Sergey Ivanov has been considered as the one with his old position and the new appointment has not added to his mention. If we look at ratings in previous quarters, we will see that that the defense minister was usually ranked 10th or 11th in the table of the mention. So, the current popularity and 3rd place of Sergey Ivanov is quite an exception. We can suppose that he will give way to Dmitry Medvedev in popularity quite soon.
The reason for Sergey Ivanov’s popularity is quite obvious. It is due to the tragic incident with the soldier Andrey Chychev who lost his legs during the military service at a procurement battalion of the Chelyabinsk tank college. Reports of the incident account for one third of the materials with the name of Sergey Ivanov in the past quarter. Should Private Sychev take part in our rating, he would have made it to the top ten of the most mentioned people, getting 12.95 percent and ranking below Boris Yeltsin and above Anatoly Chubais. Besides that, Andrey Sychev was as widely mentioned as the word “hazing”, accounting for 16.6 percent of the president’s 100 percent of the mention rating.
The fate of Oleg Shcherbinsky, the man involved in the car accident where Altay Governor Mikhail Evdokimov died, attracted half as much of the interest in the media. Both Shcherbinsky and Sychev do not wield any state powers and do not own big businesses, therefore they do not enter our rating. Shcherbinsky became famous overnight. His mention in this quarter accounts for 5 percent of Vladimir Putin’s mention, which is more that the ratings of Roman Abramovich and Andrey Fursenko. We can say that Oleg Shcherbinsky was equal in popularity with Vladislav Surkov, Igor Sechin, Sergey Sobyanin, members of the president’s staff, combined.
It is also of note that the United Russia party is mentioned in 16 percent of reports about Shcherbinsky. We remind our readers that the Kremlin-loyal party went to defend Shcherbinsky only after the District Court of Altay Region had sentenced him to four years in exile, following which protest rallies swept across the country. Thus, the PR move to support Shcherbinsky added extra 1.2 percent to United Russia’s share in points of Vladimir Putin. Whether it has influenced voters’ opinions, remains a question. But given the impressive 32.77 in the mention of the Russian president, we can say that the action did not have a great effect.
In contrast, Anatoly Kucherena, who decided to defend Anatoly Shcherbinsky following the United Russia’s request in court and reached the client’s acquittal, earned quite a number of points. Anyway, Kucherena was mentioned in the press 2.6 times as much as in the previous quarter when mass media mainly covered his work at the Public Chamber. Anatoly Kucherena gained the popularity taking part in another high-profile human rights case – that of Sychev.
Other members of the Public Chamber did not show themselves from January to March in such a vivid manner. We can point out to the chamber’s secretary Evgeny Velikhov who was mentioned in 2.52 percent of the reports related to the Russian president. On the whole, the phrase “Public Chamber” was mentioned 30 percent more in the past quarter than in the three previous months.
On the contrary, nonprofit organizations were mentioned 30 percent less this quarter. The scandal stemming the authorities’ unwillingness to have various NGOs financed from overseas peaked on January 22. It was the night when the Rossiya TV channel aired Arkady Mamontov’s documentary, The Spies, which exposed the British intelligence in their relations with Russian NGOs and started with the words “a seemingly ordinary stone.” The mention of the words “seemingly ordinary” grew seven times over the last three months in the Russian mass media.
Back to the table of widest mentions, we should emphasize the impressive jump of Magomedali Magomedov, the outgoing chairman of the Dagestani State Council, - to the 64th place from the 140th rank. The fall of Sergey Sobyanin to number 73 from number 33 and a decline in the mention of YUKOS former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky are also of note. The mention of YUKOS, however, won’t go down. The reason is in the bankruptcy procedure of the company that started in early March.
The Composite Rating for the Russian president (the Sum for the Quarter)
| Number of Mentions |
Headlines |
Number of Citations |
Money |
Next to Putin |
| 8044 |
3634 |
1495 |
996 |
80445 |
The Total of Mass Media Materials 103816
Leaders of Growth
| Index |
Person |
Progress* |
| Number of Mentions |
Sergey Lavrov (6) |
6.31 |
| Headlines |
Sergey Ivanov (3) |
8.80 |
| Number of Citations |
Sergey Lavrov (6) |
14.26 |
| Money |
Dmitry Medvedev (7) |
8.58 |
| Next to Putin |
Sergey Lavrov (6) |
0.98 |
*The change of the index is shown in percentage points, compared with the previous quarter. The rank in the number of mentions is shown in parentheses after the name.
Leaders of Decline
| Index |
Person |
Regress* |
| Number of Mentions |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (13) |
-5.68 |
| Headlines |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (13) |
-6.16 |
| Number of Citations |
Mikhail Fradkov (2) |
-9.14 |
| Money |
Mikhail Fradkov (2) |
-7.88 |
| Next to Putin |
Mikhail Fradkov (2) |
-2.40 |
* The change of the index is shown in percentage points, compared with the previous quarter. The rank in the number of mentions is shown in parentheses after the name.
Russian Newsmakers Proportionately to the Russian president’s Rating
Table1
| Rank |
Person |
Number of Mentions |
Number of Headlines |
Number of Citations |
Money |
Next to Putin |
| 1 (1) |
Vladimir Putin |
100.00 |
100.00 (1) |
100.00 (1) |
100.00 (1) |
100.00 (1) |
| 2 (2) |
Mikhail Fradkov |
24.93 |
23.56 (2) |
20.60 (7) |
30.52 (4) |
6.75 (4) |
| 3 (4) |
Sergey Ivanov |
21.95 |
22.78 (3) |
38.33 (2) |
19.18 (6) |
5.69 (6) |
| 4 (3) |
Yury Luzhkov |
20.76 |
13.10 (4) |
24.01 (6) |
18.17 (8) |
3.11 (9) |
| 5 (5) |
German Gref |
18.65 |
12.58 (6) |
29.57 (3) |
34.14 (3) |
5.71 (5) |
| 6 (12) |
Sergey Lavrov |
15.65 |
12.74 (5) |
28.29 (4) |
2.01 (55) |
3.72 (8) |
| 7 (8) |
Dmitry Medvedev |
14.97 |
12.25 (7) |
24.01 (5) |
25.30 (5) |
6.94 (2) |
| 8 (7) |
Alexey Kudrin |
13.77 |
8.09 (8) |
13.51 (9) |
34.34 (2) |
4.48 (7) |
| 9 (9) |
Boris Yeltsin |
13.31 |
5.09 (14) |
2.54 (45) |
6.93 (19) |
6.75 (3) |
| 10 (11) |
Anatoly Chubais |
11.51 |
7.87 (9) |
11.77 (10) |
9.34 (14) |
2.51 (11) |
| 11 (10) |
Boris Gryzlov |
10.88 |
6.80 (11) |
16.39 (8) |
5.42 (22) |
2.24 (16) |
| 12 (14) |
Vladimir Zhirinovsky |
9.15 |
2.45 (27) |
4.88 (27) |
5.02 (23) |
1.85 (19) |
| 13 (6) |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky |
8.39 |
7.21 (10) |
2.47 (46) |
10.74 (11) |
2.21 (17) |
| 14 (16) |
Viktor Khristenko |
7.46 |
3.71 (21) |
9.63 (11) |
7.13 (18) |
2.69 (10) |
| 15 (19) |
Mikhail Gorbachev |
7.36 |
3.99 (19) |
2.81 (40) |
3.21 (31) |
2.39 (13) |
| 16 (13) |
Alexander Zhukov |
7.25 |
3.25 (26) |
9.10 (13) |
12.65 (10) |
2.45 (12) |
| 17 (21) |
Alexey Miller |
6.61 |
3.60 (23) |
5.69 (24) |
6.93 (20) |
2.37 (14) |
| 18 (25) |
Alexey Gordeev |
6.55 |
5.28 (13) |
9.23 (12) |
10.44 (12) |
1.40 (28) |
| 19 (32) |
Sergey Kirienko |
6.29 |
4.84 (15) |
8.03 (16) |
2.41 (47) |
1.89 (18) |
| 20 (18) |
Mikhail Zurabov |
6.09 |
4.10 (18) |
9.03 (14) |
19.18 (7) |
2.35 (15) |
| 21 (30) |
Boris Berezovsky |
5.95 |
5.92 (12) |
7.16 (19) |
9.64 (13) |
1.54 (23) |
| 22 (15) |
Sergey Mironov |
5.83 |
3.38 (25) |
7.09 (20) |
4.92 (24) |
1.64 (21) |
| 23 (20) |
Dmitry Rogozin |
5.82 |
4.43 (17) |
7.42 (18) |
3.61 (28) |
1.28 (32) |
| 24 (29) |
Alexiy II |
5.73 |
4.68 (16) |
2.14 (50) |
1.00 (83) |
1.44 (26) |
| 25 (24) |
Gennady Zyuganov |
5.67 |
2.12 (31) |
5.82 (23) |
2.81 (36) |
1.47 (25) |
| 26 (22) |
Valentina Matvienko |
5.28 |
2.17 (30) |
3.14 (38) |
3.51 (29) |
1.73 (20) |
| 27 (27) |
Andrey Fursenko |
5.12 |
3.55 (24) |
8.56 (15) |
8.84 (16) |
1.22 (36) |
| 28 (17) |
Roman Abramovich |
4.92 |
2.12 (33) |
0.00 (186) |
13.05 (9) |
1.16 (37) |
| 29 (23) |
Mikhail Kasyanov |
4.84 |
3.71 (20) |
4.08 (34) |
6.63 (21) |
1.63 (22) |
| 30 (88) |
Pavel Krasheninnikov |
4.26 |
1.51 (45) |
7.96 (17) |
3.01 (33) |
0.57 (62) |
| 31 (28) |
Sergey Shoygu |
4.08 |
1.49 (46) |
4.41 (30) |
2.41 (45) |
0.81 (46) |
| 32 (42) |
Vladimir Ustinov |
4.04 |
2.34 (29) |
4.35 (32) |
1.61 (65) |
1.27 (33) |
| 33 (43) |
Alu Alkhanov |
3.97 |
3.66 (22) |
6.69 (22) |
1.81 (59) |
0.76 (50) |
| 34 (76) |
Konstantin Kosachev |
3.92 |
1.10 (55) |
6.89 (21) |
1.91 (56) |
0.77 (47) |
| 35 (26) |
Dmitry Kozak |
3.72 |
2.12 (32) |
3.95 (35) |
3.11 (32) |
1.49 (24) |
| 36 (34) |
Alexander Shokhin |
3.32 |
1.29 (49) |
5.62 (25) |
3.51 (30) |
1.40 (27) |
| 37 (31) |
Rashid Nurgaliev |
3.16 |
1.62 (37) |
1.87 (54) |
2.21 (50) |
1.32 (30) |
| 38 (40) |
Oleg Morozonv |
3.02 |
1.54 (42) |
2.74 (44) |
2.41 (43) |
0.77 (48) |
| 39 (35) |
Vyacheslav Fetisov |
3.00 |
0.94 (61) |
1.47 (68) |
2.61 (39) |
0.44 (80) |
| 40 (70) |
Sergey Baburin |
2.91 |
0.63 (79) |
2.74 (43) |
1.41 (68) |
0.45 (77) |
| 41 (85) |
Boris Aleshin |
2.78 |
1.24 (52) |
4.75 (28) |
2.61 (37) |
0.82 (45) |
| 42 (57) |
Vladimir Yakunin |
2.77 |
1.57 (39) |
4.55 (29) |
3.82 (27) |
1.31 (31) |
| 43 (60) |
Alexey Mitrofanov |
2.72 |
1.02 (58) |
1.67 (62) |
2.51 (41) |
0.37 (88) |
| 44 (49) |
Georgy Boos |
2.71 |
1.32 (48) |
2.81 (42) |
2.51 (42) |
0.58 (60) |
| 45 (46) |
Vladimir Potanin |
2.64 |
0.88 (64) |
0.40 (119) |
2.91 (34) |
1.06 (40) |
| 46 (37) |
Mikhail Shvydkoy |
2.62 |
0.63 (78) |
1.14 (74) |
2.61 (38) |
0.73 (51) |
| 47 (36) |
Alexander Veshnyakov |
2.51 |
1.54 (41) |
5.28 (26) |
1.91 (57) |
0.52 (67) |
| 48 (39) |
Lyubov Sliska |
2.50 |
0.66 (74) |
2.47 (47) |
1.41 (67) |
0.68 (55) |
| 49 (80) |
Leonid Reyman |
2.50 |
1.54 (43) |
4.41 (31) |
2.21 (51) |
0.68 (54) |
| 50 (54) |
Oleg Deripaska |
2.50 |
0.96 (60) |
0.47 (117) |
2.51 (40) |
0.90 (42) |
Headline Makers
Five ministers, the Russian president, the Chechen president, the Patriarch of All-Russia and two disfavored tycoons entered the top ten of those who appeared on first pages and in headlines most often. One of the tycoons, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now make it to the top of headline makes mainly thanks to efforts of employees of Krasnokamensk’s prison in Chita Region and his lawyers. The former put the ex-CEO of YUKOS into a penalty cell for various offences, while the latter keep on lodging appeals and even win some of them.
Boris Berezovsky last climbed to the top ten of headline makers back in the fourth quarter of 2002. He is usually ranked 30-40th but his time he went up to number 3. Siloviki’s also retained their positions. The prosecutors opened a new criminal case against Berezovsky, accusing him of “the forcible seizure of power.” Responding to the charges, Berezovsky mentioned the term “forcible takeover of power” in his speech in London. It is hard to say whose actions were more fruitful but the phrase “seizure of power” was recurrent in the Russian mass media four times more than “takeover of power” over the past quarter.
Let us compare names of newsmakers to the names of Russian medalist of the Olympics in Turin. Gold-winning Evgeny Plushchenko was mentioned in 29.92 percent of headlines while bronze medalist Irina Slutskaya was in 19.76 percent of headlines. So, we can say that Sergey Ivanov (46.89 percent) and Vladimir Putin (45.18 percent) won one and a half gold medal, while Sergey Baburin with 9.83 percent did not score even half of the minimum to get a bronze medal.
Alu Alkhanov’s jump to the fifth place from the 37th is the most dramatic change in the nomination which is apparently connected with the appointment of Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechen Prime Minister. Alexey II went up to the eight place from the 35th after scores of Christmas and Epiphany festivities. In contrast, Rashid Nurgaliev, Georgy Boos and Sergey Shoygu showed the greatest decline in their ratings.
Headline Makers
Table 2
| Rank |
Person |
Headline Makers |
Number of Headlines |
| 1 (7) |
Sergey Ivanov |
46.89 |
3 |
| 2 (2) |
Vladimir Putin |
45.18 |
1 |
| 3 (32) |
Boris Berezovsky |
44.89 |
12 |
| 4 (1) |
Mikhail Fradkov |
42.69 |
2 |
| 5 (37) |
Alu Alkhanov |
41.69 |
22 |
| 6 (3) |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky |
38.81 |
10 |
| 7 (5) |
Dmitry Medvedev |
36.96 |
7 |
| 8 (35) |
Alexiy II |
36.88 |
16 |
| 9 (15) |
Sergey Lavrov |
36.78 |
5 |
| 10 (24) |
Alexey Gordeev |
36.43 |
13 |
| 11 (17) |
Sergey Kirienko |
34.78 |
15 |
| 12 (6) |
Mikhail Kasyanov |
34.70 |
20 |
| 13 (25) |
Dmitry Rogozin |
34.40 |
17 |
| 14 (18) |
Andrey Fursenko |
31.31 |
24 |
| 15 (14) |
Anatoly Chubais |
30.89 |
9 |
| 16 (29) |
German Gref |
30.47 |
6 |
| 17 (30) |
Mikhail Zurabov |
30.41 |
18 |
| 18 (27) |
Yury Luzhkov |
28.50 |
4 |
| 19 (22) |
Boris Gryzlov |
28.23 |
11 |
| 20 (–) |
Leonid Reyman |
27.86 |
43 |
| 21 (9) |
Alexander Veshnyakov |
27.72 |
41 |
| 22 (28) |
Alexey Kudrin |
26.53 |
8 |
| 23 (13) |
Sergey Mironov |
26.23 |
25 |
| 24 (38) |
Vladimir Ustinov |
26.15 |
29 |
| 25 (19) |
Dmitry Kozak |
25.75 |
32 |
| 26 (–) |
Vladimir Yakovlev |
25.56 |
39 |
| 27 (40) |
Alexey Miller |
24.62 |
23 |
| 28 (45) |
Mikhail Gorbachev |
24.49 |
19 |
| 29 (11) |
Rashid Nurgaliev |
23.23 |
37 |
| 30 (39) |
Oleg Morozov |
23.05 |
42 |
| 31 (16) |
Viktor Khristenko |
22.50 |
21 |
| 32 (8) |
Georgy Boos |
22.02 |
48 |
| 33 (36) |
Alexander Zhukov |
20.24 |
26 |
| 34 (–) |
Boris Aleshin |
20.09 |
52 |
| 35 (20) |
Roman Abramovich |
19.44 |
33 |
| 36 (23) |
Valentina Matvienko |
18.59 |
30 |
| 37 (31) |
Alexander Shokhin |
17.60 |
49 |
| 38 (–) |
Oleg Deripaska |
17.41 |
60 |
| 39 (50) |
Boris Yeltsin |
17.27 |
14 |
| 40 (–) |
Alexey Mitrofanov |
16.89 |
58 |
| 41 (42) |
Gennady Zyuganov |
16.89 |
31 |
| 42 (10) |
Sergey Shoygu |
16.46 |
46 |
| 43 (–) |
Pavel Krasheninnikov |
16.03 |
45 |
| 44 (34) |
Vladimir Potanin |
15.09 |
64 |
| 45 (33) |
Vyacheslav Fetisov |
14.11 |
61 |
| 46 (–) |
Konstantin Kosachev |
12.70 |
55 |
| 47 (47) |
Vladimir Zhirinovksy |
12.09 |
27 |
| 48 (46) |
Lyubov Sliska |
11.94 |
74 |
| 49 (49) |
Mikhail Shvydkoy |
10.90 |
78 |
| 50 (–) |
Sergey Baburin |
9.83 |
79 |
Citation Makers
The citation makers nomination makes it possible to show those most widely cited in the Russian press. The first rank of Alexander Veshnyakov has already become a norm, especially when the country holds elections. Indeed, eight Russian regions went to polling stations on March 12, in the past quarter.
High ratings of persons in this nomination show the following. Either the newsmaker says so much that at least a part of his or her words is cited, or he or she does not say much but their words are widely cited. Let us see how words and deeds of the people in the rating differ. We have two columns in this table – Number of Citations and Citation Makers. The first figure shows how much the newsmaker spoke, while the Citation Makers criterion shows the ratio between citations of the person and other reports about him. Thus, a big divergence between the two columns will show that the entry of the rating says little but is widely cited.
If we use this method, our rating will change dramatically. Tycoons will take the lead – Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska. State officials of the second importance will follow – Mikhail Shvydkoy, Leonid Reyman and Vyacheslav Fetisov. Thus, their words appear to have the greatest worth. The rating is closed by major state officials – Mikhail Fradkov, Vladimir Putin and Alexey Kudrin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now far away from both tycoons and authority, is in the middle of the list.
Sergey Kirienko, the new head of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, has shown the biggest progress over the last three months. He came up with an idea of the reestablishing the united technological complex of the Soviet Union in the atomic energy. He disclosed plans for further reforms and got involved in the scandal with Ukraine on prices for the import and processing of spent nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants. As a result, the head of the atomic agency went up to number 19 from number 42. Boris Berezovsky also had some progress as he was frequently cited during a new confrontation with the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.
Citation Makers
Table 3
| Rank |
Person |
Citation Makers |
Number of Citations |
| 1 (2) |
Alexander Veshnyakov |
39.11 |
26 |
| 2 (–) |
Pavel Krasheninnikov |
34.69 |
17 |
| 3 (10) |
Sergey Lavrov |
33.60 |
4 |
| 4 (–) |
Leonid Reyman |
32.84 |
31 |
| 5 (–) |
Konstantin Kosachev |
32.70 |
21 |
| 6 (8) |
Sergey Ivanov |
32.45 |
2 |
| 7 (–) |
Boris Aleshin |
31.70 |
28 |
| 8 (5) |
Alexander Shokhin |
31.46 |
25 |
| 9 (7) |
Alu Alkhanov |
31.35 |
22 |
| 10 (4) |
Andrey Fursenko |
31.07 |
15 |
| 11 (–) |
Vladimir Yakunin |
30.49 |
29 |
| 12 (32) |
Dmitry Medvedev |
29.82 |
5 |
| 13 (12) |
German Gref |
29.47 |
3 |
| 14 (9) |
Boris Gryzlov |
28.00 |
8 |
| 15 (11) |
Mikhail Zurabov |
27.55 |
14 |
| 16 (29) |
Alexey Gordeev |
26.19 |
12 |
| 17 (18) |
Viktor Khristenko |
24.00 |
11 |
| 18 (21) |
Dmitry Rogozin |
23.72 |
18 |
| 19 (42) |
Sergey Kirienko |
23.72 |
16 |
| 20 (27) |
Alexander Zhukov |
23.33 |
13 |
| 21 (6) |
Sergey Mironov |
22.60 |
20 |
| 22 (44) |
Boris Berezovsky |
22.34 |
19 |
| 23 (34) |
Yury Luzhkov |
21.50 |
6 |
| 24 (15) |
Sergey Shoygu |
20.12 |
30 |
| 25 (40) |
Vladimir Ustinov |
20.00 |
32 |
| 26 (24) |
Dmitry Kozak |
19.73 |
35 |
| 27 (33) |
Georgy Boos |
19.27 |
42 |
| 28 (30) |
Gennady Zyuganov |
19.08 |
23 |
| 29 (19) |
Anatoly Chubais |
19.01 |
10 |
| 30 (28) |
Vladimir Putin |
18.59 |
1 |
| 31 (35) |
Lyubov Sliska |
18.41 |
47 |
| 32 (14) |
Alexey Kudrin |
18.23 |
9 |
| 33 (–) |
Sergey Baburin |
17.52 |
43 |
| 34 (13) |
Oleg Morozov |
16.87 |
44 |
| 35 (22) |
Alexey Miller |
15.98 |
24 |
| 36 (20) |
Mikhail Kasyanov |
15.68 |
34 |
| 37 (26) |
Mikhail Fradkov |
15.36 |
7 |
| 38 (–) |
Alexey Mitrofanov |
11.42 |
62 |
| 39 (23) |
Valentina Matvienko |
11.06 |
38 |
| 40 (25) |
Rashid Nurgaliev |
11.02 |
54 |
| 41 (38) |
Vladimir Zhirinovsky |
9.92 |
27 |
| 42 (16) |
Vyacheslav Fetisov |
9.13 |
68 |
| 43 (37) |
Mikhail Shvydkoy |
8.06 |
74 |
| 44 (46) |
Mikhail Gorbachev |
7.09 |
40 |
| 45 (41) |
Alexiy II |
6.94 |
50 |
| 46 (43) |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky |
5.48 |
46 |
| 47 (49) |
Boris Yeltsin |
3.55 |
45 |
| 48 (–) |
Oleg Deripaska |
3.48 |
117 |
| 49 (47) |
Vladimir Potanin |
2.83 |
119 |
| 50 (48) |
Roman Abramovich |
0.00 |
186 |
Tycoons
Eight state officials are among the top ten most frequently cited in relation to money matters over the past quarter. Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways, can also be called a state official. Thus, the money flow in Russia appears to be totally controlled by the authority, according to the rating.
Three Mikhails can be found right after the top ten – Kasyanov (11th rank), Fradkov (12th) and Khodorkovsky (13th). Each of them had their chances to get to the top ten of tycoons as their ratings are only 2 percent lower that Vladimir Yakunin’s who landed on number 10. Among those whose rating has declined are Valentina Matvienko (falling to the 35th place from the 23rd), Anatoly Chubais (down to number 30 from number 16), Vladimir Ustinov (to 47th rank from 31st rank) and Vyacheslav Fetisov (down to the 27th place from the 7th place). The sharp decline in the rating of the head of the Russian Sports Agency is due to the fact that the financial support for Russian athletes was largely discussed before the Olympics in Turin. The press mulled over money matters in sports so ardently that Vyacheslav Fetisov made it to top ten of the country’s main tycoons in the rating of the previous quarters. The fund-raising issue, however, went to the background during the Olympics and Fetisov lost a number of points.
The rating of Russia’s former President Boris Yeltsin also fell, down to number 40 from number 32, compared to the previous rating. Still, it is quite paradoxical that the name of Yeltsin is connected with money even six years after his resignation. The former president’s rating comes to that of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Boris Gryzlov. Yeltsin’s rating here is four times as high as those of Foreign Minister Sergey Larvov and three times higher than the rating of Alexiy II. So how does the money matter and Yeltsin stick together? The press counted this quarter how much the birth contract for Yeltsin’s great-grandson, Misha cost (the boy was born on January 22) and suggested how much the president’s 75th birthday may cost. Still, the greatest part of money-related publications about Yeltsin concerned his activities in the capacity of the head of the state.
Tycoons
Table 4
| Rank |
Person |
Tycoons |
Money |
| 1 (2) |
Mikhail Zurabov |
38.98 |
7 |
| 2 (3) |
Roman Abramovich |
32.83 |
9 |
| 3 (1) |
Alexey Kudrin |
30.87 |
2 |
| 4 (6) |
German Gref |
22.67 |
3 |
| 5 (15) |
Alexander Zhukov |
21.61 |
10 |
| 6 (9) |
Andrey Fursenko |
21.36 |
16 |
| 7 (11) |
Dmitry Medvedev |
20.93 |
5 |
| 8 (5) |
Boris Berezovsky |
20.04 |
13 |
| 9 (22) |
Alexey Gordeev |
19.73 |
12 |
| 10 (–) |
Vladimir Yakunin |
17.04 |
27 |
| 11 (17) |
Mikhail Kasyanov |
16.97 |
21 |
| 12 (14) |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky |
15.85 |
11 |
| 13 (12) |
Mikhail Fradkov |
15.16 |
4 |
| 14 (24) |
Vladimir Potanin |
13.68 |
34 |
| 15 (18) |
Alexander Shokhin |
13.11 |
30 |
| 16 (21) |
Alexey Miller |
12.97 |
20 |
| 17 (–) |
Oleg Deripaska |
12.44 |
40 |
| 18 (20) |
Vladimir Putin |
12.38 |
1 |
| 19 (25) |
Mikhail Shvydkoy |
12.32 |
38 |
| 20 (13) |
Viktor Khristenko |
11.83 |
18 |
| 21 (–) |
Boris Aleshin |
11.61 |
37 |
| 22 (10) |
Georgy Boos |
11.47 |
42 |
| 23 (–) |
Alexey Mitrofanov |
11.42 |
41 |
| 24 (–) |
Leonid Reyman |
10.95 |
51 |
| 25 (27) |
Yury Luzhkov |
10.84 |
8 |
| 26 (19) |
Sergey Ivanov |
10.82 |
6 |
| 27 (7) |
Vyacheslav Fetisov |
10.79 |
39 |
| 28 (28) |
Sergey Mironov |
10.45 |
24 |
| 29 (30) |
Dmitry Kozak |
10.37 |
32 |
| 30 (16) |
Anatoly Chubais |
10.04 |
14 |
| 31 (29) |
Oleg Morozov |
9.88 |
43 |
| 32 (50) |
Alexander Veshnyakov |
9.41 |
57 |
| 33 (–) |
Pavel Krasheninnikov |
8.75 |
33 |
| 34 (42) |
Rashid Nurgaliev |
8.66 |
50 |
| 35 (23) |
Valentina Matvienko |
8.24 |
29 |
| 36 (40) |
Dmitry Rogozin |
7.69 |
28 |
| 37 (26) |
Sergey Shoygu |
7.32 |
45 |
| 38 (35) |
Lyubov Sliska |
6.97 |
67 |
| 39 (41) |
Vladimir Zhirinovsky |
6.79 |
23 |
| 40 (32) |
Boris Yeltsin |
6.44 |
19 |
| 41 (34) |
Boris Gryzlov |
6.17 |
22 |
| 42 (37) |
Gennady Zyuganov |
6.14 |
36 |
| 43 (–) |
Konstantin Kosachev |
6.03 |
56 |
| 44 (–) |
Sergey Baburin |
5.98 |
68 |
| 45 (43) |
Alu Alkhanov |
5.64 |
59 |
| 46 (38) |
Mikhail Gorbachev |
5.41 |
31 |
| 47 (31) |
Vladimir Ustinov |
4.92 |
65 |
| 48 (48) |
Sergey Kirienko |
4.74 |
47 |
| 49 (45) |
Alexiy II |
2.17 |
83 |
| 50 (46) |
Sergey Lavrov |
1.59 |
55 |
&
The idea to rank influential and power-wielding people by their political authority is no new. A distinctive feature of Vlast’s rating is in its calculation method. We do not favor wide-spread ratings based on surveys of experts. Firstly, experts sometimes are so busy that they ask their secretaries to fill questionnaire forms – we know it for sure and often use the trick ourselves. Secondly and more importantly, calculation of expert’s votes cannot be checked, therefore some suspicions may arise.
We have taken up a brand new approach which, in our opinion, can give an objective (though not perfect) evaluation of the influence of Russian politicians.
Vlast’s rating, or the Authority’s Publicity Rating, has been calculated on the basis of a statistic analysis of Russian media*. Here are criteria for the survey:
mention – a number of media reports where the politician was mentioned;
headlines – a number of times when the politician is mentioned in a headline of in a lead of a media report;
citations – a number of media reports citing the politician’s statements;
money – a number of media reports where the politician is mentioned in a relation to sums of money;
next to Putin – a number of media reports where the politician was mentioned together with the incumbent Russian president.
The combination of these parameters forms the composite publicity index, or the Rating of Mentions where entries are divided into two groups. The first group of 50 people is considered the most influential and run in other nominations, such as Headline Makers, Citation Makers and Tycoons. The Headline Makers nomination highlight main heroes of media reports and the Citation Makers nomination aims to show to what extent media consider politicians and businessmen’s opinions. The Tycoons rating is designed to evaluate economic activity of politicians. The aggregate of the indices forms the composite rating. Calculation methods are explained in comments for tables.
* Calculations were carried out with the help of Intergrum (http://el.integrum.ru). The calculation took into account the following media sources:
Newspapers: Argumenty i Fakty, Vedomosti, Versiya, Vechernyaya Moskva, Vremya MN, Vremya Novostey, Gudok, Gazeta, Zavtra, Izvestia, Kommersant, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moskovskaya Pravda, Moskovskie Novovsti, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta, Novye Izvestia, Parlamentskaya Gazeta, Rossiyaskaya Gazeta, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Tribuna, Trud, Economika i Zhizn.
Magazines: Ezhenedelny Zhurnal, Itogi, Kommersanty Vlast, Kommersant Dengi, Kompania, Ogonek, Profil, Expert.
News programs of the following TV and radio companies: ORT, RTR, TVTs, NTV, TVS, Mayak Radio, Radio Rossiyi, Radio Ekho Moskvy.
Pavel Chernikov
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 10, 2006
|
|
|
