Vladimir Putin (center) meets with members of the government after their weekly meeting.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
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Curtains Up
// The new government perfoms for the president
All the new ministers (and some of the old) were summoned yesterday to a meeting with President Putin.
Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Agricultural Minister Aleksei Gordeev were sitting around the table. I habitually kept looking for German Gref but only saw Elvira Nabiullina in his place. In my mind I knew that Nabiullina was a fine replacement, but in my heart, as they say, I kept looking for Gref.
The first act, in which the ministers wait for the president and quietly talk amongst themselves, differed from yesterday’s meeting in one important way: no one was talking to anyone else. Dead silent. In the silence Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov got a red folder with the emblem of Russia out of his briefcase and silently gave it to Igor Sechin. Sechin silently flipped through it, nodded and gave it back to Serdyukov. Serdyukov quickly and cautiously hid the folder in his briefcase again, as if Sechin’s flipping added some special value to the document.
That was the only pantomime of the first act.
During the intermission first deputy prime ministers Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the Government Viktor Zubkov and Presidential Press-Secretary Aleksei Gromov appeared in the cabinet. They took their places before the president came in.
All this just confirms (again) that the new government is no worse than the old, at least in the sacred, all-seeing eyes of Vladimir Putin.
I was like being watching breathing gymnastics. It seems like it comes so naturally to the group leader while everyone else just tries to achieve a fraction of what he does.
Putin spoke rather forcefully. The new government is working well, he said, and we were supposed to be convinced.
Putin’s main task for the government formed rather unexpectedly and required some explanation for its participants. The main task before March 2008, with regards to the parliamentary and presidential elections, is to make sure that “the work of the administrative structure was not interrupted for a single day.” Compared to this grandiose task all others, it seemed, ceased to exist.
The president asked Agriculture Minister Aleksei Gordeev to report on the results of the harvest. Logical enough: during Soviet times there was nothing else that could inspire confidence in tomorrow for workers, rural and urban alike.
Gordeev was happy to report to the president.
“There was a troubling situation in the spring and early summer,” he said (one should note that he already reported on this situation back in the spring and early summer –A.K.) “Mostly in the Southern Federal District: in the Rostov and Volgograd regions, in Dagestan…we were worried…”
But they’re not worried any more, it would seem. The harvest is almost entirely collected (96% of the grain has milled) 20 days ahead of schedule. Overall there will be 85 million tons.
“This is more than last year,” Gordeev noted.
Here he could have stopped and caught his breath before continuing, but decided to plug along adding that 12 million tons of grain will be exported and that its been decided to radically expand the amount of winter maple…
“Compared to last year…” the president said with only the faintest question mark.
“It will be a little better,” sighed Gordeev.
“Congratulations to the farmers!” the president added. “We used to have a nice tradition of giving state awards to the farmers that had the most successful harvest. Think about who we should honor.”
Prepare thyself, all ye noble grain-growers! You who have offered your golden wheat to the motherland! (I wanted to write: “Behold, oh Motherland, the abundance of Kazakhstan!” but thought that would be better left to Nursultan Nazarbaev.)
After Gordeev came the new minister of regions, Dmitry Kozak. He was assigned to report on the rebuilding efforts in Nevelsk after the earthquake. He spoke is such a way that after half a minute I thought that he had been the minister of the regions for years.
Kozak reported so thoroughly that Chairman Zubkov jealously listened and even interrupted to correct him. Kozak was commenting that 135 million rubles had not only been sent to Sakhalin, but had even arrived at their destination.
“The money not only arrived but was dispersed – in 20 and 30 thousand ruble increments. Housing certificates are being dispersed,” he said, apparently oblivious to the fact the Putin had given the floor to Kozak.
The reports by Ivanov and Medvedev were short and to-the-point. It seem that they, too, were impressed with the way the meeting was going. Any one of the people here could be the toast master at this event.
Then it was Minister of Economic Development and Trade Elvira Nabiullina’s turn to have the floor. She still has to grow into the position. But she is a good study, that is for certain. The passion with which she reported the economic development forecast spoke volumes.
The only one of the new ministers left to present was Minister of Social Development and Healthcare Tatyana Golikova.
In her miniscule presentation Golikova tried to combine knowledge from her former position as deputy finance minister with her new position, which she received in this very office. She spoke of increasing wages in organizations that get their funding from the state budget.
As a result she can’t blame herself for anything. And the people can’t blame her for anything. Neither can the president.
The opposite is true, too.
Andrei Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 02, 2007
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