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May 13, 2008
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Restructuring without Repopulating
// The faces are nearly all the same, but in different places
In the structure of the new Russian government, approved by President Dmitry Medvedev and announced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, all suggestion given were used, including ones that directly contradicted each other. Putin has shown once more that he is ready to give his subordinates more than they ask for, but not what they ask for at all. With rare exceptions, the lists of those who benefited and those who suffered from the reorganization of the government coincide.
The new president and prime minister were able to maintain complete secrecy as they formed the new cabinet. All predictions about the structure and personnel of the new government that Putin was forming for Medvedev, without exception, including the absence of deputy head of the presidential executive staff Igor Sechin, were wrong. The main news in the decree signed by President Medvedev yesterday, which was not announced by Prime Minister Putin, was a revolution in subordination, returning control over federal agencies and services to the ministries. The newly appointed ministers now have the right to give the heads of subordinate services and agencies orders they cannot refuse, as well as to reverse or cancel orders given by the agency toppers “when necessary.” That eliminates the basic principle of the administrative reform worked out by Dmitry Kozak and implemented in 2004: division of ministries (legislative structures) from agencies (executive structures) and services (supervisory structures) through formal independence of their managements from each other.

The Federal Agency for Construction and Utilities (Rosstroi) would have gone to Kozak, who remained in the post of Minister of Regional Development, were it not for another innovation – Rosstroi was merged into the ministry. In the same way, the Ministry of Health took on the functions of the Federal Agency for Health and Social Development (Roszdrav) and the Federal Agency for High-Technology Medical Care, although it will share them with the little-known Federal Medico-Biological Agency. The Ministry of Culture also took on functions of agencies. But the wave was not all-encompassing. The Justice Ministry received some of the functions of the Federal Registration Service, but that service was not eliminated, just made part of the Ministry of Economic Development.

Elvira Nabiullina will remain Economics Minister and now has a chance of becoming what prime ministers Mikhail Fradkov and Viktor Zubkov wanted: “the intellectual; staff of economic reform,” without administrative functions. That was helped along by another innovation. Some of the functions of the ministries will be given to a mixed economic body. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has lost it’s the last two words. It will no longer be invlioved with trade. Trade will now go to the reorganized Ministry of Industry and Energy, which remains in the hands of Minister Viktor Khristenko. While he is taking controlling of trade (except for setting agricultural tariffs, which goes to the Agriculture Ministry), he will lose energy. A new, separate Ministry of Energy has been formed. It will be headed by former head of Atomstroiexport Sergey Shmatko. That ministry will swallow up the Federal Agency for Energy (Rosenergo) whole. Finally, the Ministry of Natural Resources, where Yury Trutnev remains in charge, has received all ecological supervision functions, including those of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technical and Atomic Supervision (Rostekhnadzor). Unexpectedly, it has lost control over the Federal Forest Management Service (Rosleskhoz), which has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, where Alexey Gordeev remains minister. Similarly, the Ministry of Communications, where Leonid Reiman was replaced by Igor Shchegolev, will now also be responsible for mass communications.

There is no apparent logic in which agencies and services were eliminated, which were divided and which survived in the Putin government. Thus, the Russian Federal Property Fund is not being absorbed by the Ministry of Economic Development, as could be expected on the model of the reform of the Ministry of Health, but by the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management (Rosimushchestvo). The only thing that can be said for sure is that the government is not creating new forms of governmental bodies. Vladislav Putilin, first deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, has been deprived of ministerial status. His post has been eliminated, although the commission itself remains, still headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. The two state committees created in September 2007 (those of youth affairs and fishing) have been made ordinary agencies and subordinated to the new Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy and Ministry of Agriculture, respectively. This case of the fishing committee is quite surprising. The purpose of appointing Andrey Krainy chairman of the State Fishing Committee a few months ago was to create a body not subordinate to the Agriculture Ministry. Now the history of the reform of the fishing industry has come full circle.

Finally, Putin was able to implement all reform plans on the level of deputy prime ministers at once. There were two predictions – that Putin would create a large staff of personal assistants from the deputy prime ministers, or there would be a small number of them taking on a significant part of the functions of the prime minister and leaving Putin free for strategy. The number of deputy prime ministers has grown from four to seven, but the principle of individual responsibility of each for his sector has not been maintained.

There are two first deputy prime ministers in the new government. They are former presidential aide Igor Shuvalov, whose functions will include, according to a source in the presidential executive staff, “a wide circle” of socio-economic authorizations and domestic trade. The other is former prime minister Viktor Zubkov, who will manage the national projects and fishing. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov will also manage the national projects. Igor Sechin was not made chief of the government staff, but he will manage industry, except for the military-industrial complex, which stays with Sergey Ivanov. Chief of the government staff Sergey Naryshkin has traded places with chief of the presidential executive staff Sergey Sobyanin.

Finally, Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Kudrin remains the only minister wearing two hats. Besides his responsibilities as finance minister, he will, like Igor Shuvalov, be responsible for a wide circle of socio-economic issues, not including customs tariffs, which Shuvalov is not responsible for either. Zubkov is. The deputy prime ministers do not have the right to give orders to the ministers and they are not formal subordinate to each other, nor do they have any government bodies subordinate to them. Thus Viktor Khristenko, for example, will be managed by at least three of Putin’s deputies – Shuvalov for questions of trade, Sechin for civil industry and Ivanov for military industry.

It has yet to be seen how that will all work. It is possible that this is a great accomplishment by the new prime minister. He is the one who will settle the arguments and conflicts that will inevitably come up.

   &
New Faces in the Country’s Leadership

Photo: ITAR-TASS
Avdeev, Alexander Alexeevich, Minister of Culture. Born September 8, 1964 in Kremenchug, Ukraine. Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1968. Worked in the Soviet embassies in Algeria and France. Ambassador to Luxembourg in 1987. Ambassador to Bulgaria in 1992. Deputy, then first deputy foreign minister 1996-2002. March 2002, ambassador to France.


Photo: Alexander Miridonov
Bortnikov, Alexander Vasilyevich, Director of the FSB. Born November 15, 1951, in Perm. Graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport Engineering and the Higher School of the KGB. Employed by state security agencies since 1975. In 2003, head of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region department of the FSB, head of the department of economic security.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Konovalov, Alexander Vladimirovich, Minister of Justice. Born June 9, 1968 in Leningrad. Graduated from the law department of Leningrad State University. Worked in the prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg. Deputy Prosecutor of St. Petersburg 2001-2005. February-November 2005, Prosecutor of Bashkortostan, then presidential representative in the Volga Federal District.


Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
Mutko, Vitaly Leontyevich, Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy. Born December 8, 1958, in Krasnodar Territory. Graduated from the Leningrad Water Transport Institute and St. Petersburg State University. Was a sailor, chairman of the professional committee of a sailors’ training school, head of Kirov District in Leningrad. From 1992 to 1996, deputy mayor of St. Petersburg for social issues under Anatoly Sobchak. Elected president of the Zenith soccer club in 1997. Head of the Russian Soccer Premier League 2001-2003. Senator since St. Petersburg in 2003. Simultaneously president of the Russian Soccer League since 2005.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Naryshkin, Sergey Evgenyevich, chief of the presidential executive staff. Born October 27, 1954, in Leningrad. Graduated from the Leningrad Mechanics Institute and the St. Petersburg International Management Institute. In the 1980s, he was an expert in the Soviet embassy in Belgium (According to the media, he was employed by the KGB at that time.) From 1992 to 1995, worked on the St. Petersburg mayor’s committee on economics and finance. Then he worked in Promstroibank and the government of Leningrad Region. In 2004, he became the deputy head of the president’s economic department, then chief of the government staff with the rank of minister. In February 2007, he was made deputy prime minister.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Patrushev, Nikolay Platonovich, Secretary of the Security Council. Born July 11, 1951 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute and KGB courses in Minsk. Employed by state security agencies since 1975. Minister of Security of Karelia in 1992, later worker in the central apparatus of the Federal Counterintelligence Service and FSB. In 1998, appointed deputy head of the presidential executive staff – head of the Main Supervisory Department. In October 1998, deputy director of the FSB, head of the department of economic security. Director of the FSB since 1999.


Photo: Alexander Miridonov
Sechin, Igor Ivanovich, Deputy Prime Minister. Born September 7, 1960 in Leningrad. Graduated from the law department of Leningrad State University. Was a translator in Mozambique and Angola, worked on the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council and in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office. From 1996 to 1998, worked in the Presidential Property Management Department. In 1999, was a consultant to the director of the FSB. In August 1999, became head of the secretariat of prime minister Vladimir Putin. Deputy chief of the presidential executive staff since 2000, simultaneously aide to the president since 2004.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Shchegolev, Igor Olegovich, Minister of Communications and Mass Communications. Born November 10, 1965 in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. Worked for ITAR-TASS. In 1998, appointed deputy head, then head, of the government information department of the government staff. Press secretary to prime minister Evgeny Primakov. In 1999, advisor to prime ministers Sergey Stepashin and Vladimir Putin. Head of the presidential press service in 2000, head of presidential protocol since 2002.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Shmatko, Sergey Ivanovich, Minister of Energy. Born September 26, 1966 in Stavropol. Graduated from the Urals State University, University of Marburg (West Germany) and General Staff courses. In 1992, worked in consulting companies in Germany, the Institute of the Problems of Investing and the All-Russia Bank of Regional Development. In 1997, became head of Rosenergoatom center for economic strategy, was advisor to the general director of the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute on the Exploitation of Atomic Electricity Plants, head of the State Conservation Fund. Since 2005, president of ZAO Atomstroiexport.


Photo: Alexander Miridonov
Shuvalov, Igor Ivanovich, First Deputy Prime Minister. Born January 4, 1967 in Magadan Region. Graduated from the law department of Moscow State University. Worked in research laboratories and as attaché in the legal department of the Foreign Ministry. In 1993, became senior legal consultant. In 1995 became director of the ALM legal bureau. In 1997, became a department head in the State Committee for the Management of State Property. In 1998, became deputy minister of state property and chairman of Russian Federal Property Fund. In 2000, became chief of the government staff with the rank of minister. In 2003, became aide to the president, and simultaneously G8 sherpa since 2005.


Photo: Dmitry Azarov
Sobyanin, Sergey Semenovich, Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of the government Staff. Born June 21, 1958 in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area. Graduated from the Kostroma Technological Institute and the All-Union Extramural Law Institute. Worked as a mechanic, then for the Komsomol. In 1990, head of the tax inspectorate of Kogalym, in 1991 became mayor of the city. In 1993, first deputy head of the administration of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, in 1994 chairman of the area’s duma. In 2000, first deputy presidential representative in the Urals Federal District. In 2001, elected governor of Tyumen Region. In 2005, became chief of the presidential staff.


Changes in Administrative Place

Rising Administratively


Yury Trutnev - besides natural resources, now engaged in ecology, received control over two federal services, lost one agency (forestry)

Sergey Lavrov - kept ministerial post, received control over a new federal agency (on affairs of the CIS)

Alexander Avdeev - from ambassador to France to minister of culture

Alexander Konovalov - from presidential representative to minister of justice

Sergey Shmatko and Vitaly Mutko head newly created ministries

Alexey Gordeev - has received control over two federal agencies (forestry and fishery).

Elvira Nabiullina - has received control over two federal services and two agencies, simultaneously ceased to be engaged in trade, having kept only economic development in her job title

Alexander Bortnikov - from FSB department head to director of that service


Falling Administratively


Viktor Zubkov - from prime minister to first deputy prime minister

Sergey Ivanov - from first deputy prime minister to ordinary deputy prime minister

Tatyana Golikova - lost two subordinate federal agencies

Rashid Nurgaliev - lost one subordinate service and one agency

Dmitry Kozak - lost the subordinate agency on construction and utilities

Leonid Reiman and Viktor Ustinov have left their ministerial posts


Unchanged on the Administrative Ladder


Alexey Kudrin - kept posts of deputy prime minister and minister of finance with all subordinate structures

Alexander Zhukov - remains deputy prime minister

Anatoly Serdyukov, Andrey Fursenko, Sergey Shoigu - kept ministerial posts and all subordinate structures

Igor Levitin - kept post of minister, has received one new service (air navigation) and has lost one agency (surveying and cartography)


Changing Places


Sergey Naryshkin - from deputy prime minister, chief of the government staff to chief of the presidential executive staff

Sergey Sobyanin - changed places with Naryshkin

Nikolay Patrushev – from head of the FSB to head of the Security Council

Igor Sechin - from presidential aide and deputy chief of the presidential executive staff to deputy prime minister

Igor Shuvalov – from presidential aide to first deputy prime minister

Igor Shchegolev - from chief of presidential protocol to minister of communications and mass communications

Viktor Cherkesov – head of the State Committee on the Control of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Trade to head of the agency for arms deliveries
Dmitry Butrin

All the Article in Russian as of May 13, 2008

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