Electoral specialists will be transferred to the new department of the State Council ap. "It will be interesting": about reshuffles in the Presidential Administration

Personnel changes in the Kremlin after the re-election of Vladimir Putin for a fourth term dragged on for more than a month. Kommersant's interlocutors in government agencies believed that decisions would be made earlier, but key figures would retain their posts. This expectation is connected with the tradition that has developed since 2008, when the main personnel decisions in the Kremlin and in the White House were made almost simultaneously. The head of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, ex-employee of the presidential administration Konstantin Kostin recalls that "the president has no restrictions on decision-making."

A month has passed since the inauguration of Vladimir Putin, which took place on May 7, and more than two weeks since May 18, when the new government was approved. Kommersant's interlocutors in state structures were waiting for the signing of a number of documents on appointments in the structure of the presidential administration (AP) last Friday, June 1. The signing of some decrees of the head of state on the presidential administration after the formation of a new government is inevitable, since former presidential aide Konstantin Chuichenko moved to the White House to the post of deputy prime minister and head of the government apparatus, and plenipotentiary in the Central Federal District Alexei Gordeev became deputy prime minister. Sources of Kommersant expected that he would leave the Presidential Administration and a number of other officials (see Kommersant of May 31).

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not rule out personnel changes in the Presidential Administration, but noted that they were not mandatory, and on June 5, when asked about the timing of reassignments in the administration, he replied: “I don’t know, we are waiting.”

The president "forms his administration" under Art. 83 of the Constitution, this procedure is not described by normative acts. However, since 2008, when Dmitry Medvedev was elected president, the appointments of the leadership of the Presidential Administration and the government have been made in a package. On May 12, 2008, less than a week after the May 7 inauguration, Mr Medvedev approved a new administration. This happened on the same day with the formation of a new government. The Presidential Administration was headed by Sergei Naryshkin, who previously worked as the head of the government apparatus. Vladislav Surkov became the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration (Aleksey Gromov and Alexander Beglov worked in the rank of deputies). In 2012, when Vladimir Putin returned from the post of prime minister to the post of president, it took a little longer to staff the administration of the Presidential Administration and the government. The government was formed on May 21, on the same day officials who worked in the government with Mr. Putin received appointments to the Presidential Administration (a number of appointments for assistants and advisers to the president took place in the following days). On May 21, 2012, Aleksey Gromov was promoted to the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration (Vyacheslav Volodin, who had worked in this rank since December 2011, retained him), Sergey Ivanov remained the head of the Presidential Administration.

“The artificial postponement of reappointments is due to the fact that the authorities want to fill the information space with intrigue,” says political scientist Andrei Kolyadin, who worked in the presidential administration from 2009 to 2012. “First they appointed the government, then the Direct Line with Putin.” Konstantin Kostin, former head of the presidential department for domestic policy (2011-2012), told Kommersant that the speed with which the new presidential administration staff is approved depends on the "real political context" and the tasks set by the president. “For example, in the early 2000s, a new team was being formed, so then the presidential administration was approved a little longer,” he noted. “The president has no time limits for making a decision.” After the first victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections on May 17, 2000, Mikhail Kasyanov was appointed prime minister, and the structure of the government was determined at the same time. On May 27, Vladimir Putin reappointed Alexander Voloshin as head of the Presidential Administration, who had also worked in this position under President Boris Yeltsin. However, since the end of December 1999, a number of officials well known to Mr. Putin from work in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg and the government began to move to the Presidential Administration, including Dmitry Medvedev, Dmitry Kozak, Igor Sechin and Viktor Ivanov.

When Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a second term (elections were held on March 14), he did not delay appointments. Even before his inauguration, he reappointed Dmitry Medvedev as head of the Presidential Administration (he received the position in 2003, replacing Alexander Voloshin in this post). At the same time, a large-scale reorganization was carried out: instead of eight deputy heads of the Presidential Administration, including one first, only two simple deputies remained (Igor Sechin and Vladislav Surkov), some of the former deputies became assistants to the president, and the number of departments was reduced. Konstantin Kostin says that the postponement of appointments to the Presidential Administration in 2018 does not mean preparation for fundamental changes.

: the main changes will affect the economic bloc, an assistant for economic issues may receive a special status, it is possible that among the new advisers to the president there will be representatives of his election headquarters or Alexei Kudrin, experts interviewed by RIA Novosti say.

In addition, political scientists do not reject the idea of ​​integrating the presidential administration and the government apparatus.

Strengthening the economic bloc

According to the President of the Center for Strategic Communications, Dmitry Abzalov, the most serious changes, both in structure and in personnel matters, are expected in the economic block of the presidential administration, which is due both to the economic situation and the main directions set in the message to the Federal Assembly.

"In general, the economic bloc will be subject to changes the most, because the main part of the agenda will be related precisely to the economy ... The economic bloc is closely related to what the Cabinet will be like ... The economic assistant can become closer to the president so that there is direct interaction with him" - said the political scientist.

He explained that the economic block is formed according to special principles, although formally the administration does not deal with the economy, since this is a function of the government, but there is such a contour, it is written for the presidential assistant for economic policy.

In addition to the economic bloc, the changes may also affect other areas in the work of the administration, Abzalov believes. “A very interesting question on the information block, everything related to the media, what will happen to it. There are a number of movements inside, and the issue has not been resolved yet,” he said.

According to political scientist Alexander Konkov, changes in the presidential administration will not be local, but systemic. The expert added that the president's message, in which he spoke about the need for a breakthrough, the economic development of the country, the need for technological renewal, the development of the digital economy, identified those sectors where changes are needed first of all. “Based on this, the formation of relevant services within the presidential administration will take place, because it is necessary that there be advanced personnel here who can keep abreast. In this regard, an important area of ​​work will be the combination of the economic block and those units that work through international cooperation,” he explained.

Konkov emphasized that in the conditions of the political crises that the Russian Federation is experiencing in relation to the Western powers, it will be very important to strengthen the international component in economic cooperation.

Integration with the government apparatus

Speaking about structural changes, Konkov also did not rule out that the plan, which was already rumored, would be implemented - the integration of the presidential administration and the government apparatus.

“It is important here that there are no contradictions between the executive branch and the presidential office, so that there is a common vision for solving the tasks that were given in the message. Because we remember that there were scandals in the past that did not go into the hands of either the president or the government let alone the development of the country. It is very important that the entire apparatus work smoothly in accordance with the system of priorities and tasks set by Putin," he commented on the likelihood of such a merger.

According to Abzalov, all structural changes will definitely be known by May. “It will be clear what structure is being built, based on this, there will be agreements, there will be consultations at various levels,” the political scientist said.

At the same time, the analyst noted the strong position of the political block of the presidential administration, which became even stronger after the presidential elections. “If we take a bloc, for example, a political one, judging by how the election campaign went, both the head of the bloc and the bloc as a whole have strong positions. These are the deputy head of the administration, Sergei Kireenko, and the block that is under him - this is the department of internal policy and the department of public projects, ”the expert explained.

The head of the "Political Expert Group" Konstantin Kalachev recalled that even before the presidential elections, the head of the administration Anton Vaino and his first deputy Sergei Kiriyenko proposed a reform of the state body, but then decided that it was better to return to this issue after the election campaign, since "there are no horses in the crossing change”, besides, any structural changes before the main election campaign would be premature.

"But given that everyone is satisfied with the results of the campaign, given that the leadership of the presidential administration has fully coped with the tasks set, I think they can now have carte blanche to change the structure and personnel changes" - said Kalachev.

New people or old guard

Aleksey Zudin, a member of the Expert Council of the Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Research, did not rule out that the new administration would include representatives of Vladimir Putin's election headquarters. “New people are likely to appear, and the most likely source of personnel renewal is most likely the headquarters. But this reasonable personnel caution, characteristic of Putin, will again declare itself. He is used to working with people he trusts and who show a certain result. But personnel conservatism does not mean the absence of changes,” the political scientist explained.

According to Abzalov, the mass transfer of the cabinet of ministers to the presidential administration, as was the case in 2012, is not expected now. “Moving from government to administration was rather characteristic of the previous political cycle. Firstly, this was due to the fact that the president came from the Cabinet, so many people landed there, and a part of the control circuit also came there, but in the near future such honorary positions should not be expected en masse,” he said.

At the same time, the expert did not rule out the appearance of a former finance minister in the administration. "An open question is whether Kudrin will somehow enter this system," he said.

The same possibility was hypothetically admitted by the head of the Center for Economic and Political Reforms Nikolai Mironov, although he noted that, in fact, Kudrin is already Putin's adviser. “Maybe in terms of image it will add to him, somehow strengthen his position in terms of apparatus, but in terms of influence, this is unlikely to add or subtract anything, because his opinion already reaches Putin ... Although I do not exclude that he can enter the administration as an assistant or adviser,” the expert believes.

The presidential administration (AP) is waiting for resignations and new appointments. The changes envisaged are not particularly significant - the new leadership was formed quite recently, following the results of the 2016 parliamentary election campaign. But vacancies also opened up in the Presidential Administration: for example, after the departure of Konstantin Chuichenko, the post of head of the control department was vacant in the government. This post was once held by Vladimir Putin himself.

In addition, several key employees (such as Vladislav Surkov) are expected to leave, who also have to be replaced by someone. The role and importance of the administration in the current structure of power can hardly be overestimated, and therefore it is worth taking a closer look at its activities.

How did the AP get power?

When in 1991 the Russian government suddenly became the legal successor of the USSR, and that, accordingly, disappeared, it turned out that Boris Yeltsin did not have the appropriate apparatus to govern a huge country. The government of Burbulis-Gaidar was focused on reforming the economy and solving urgent problems of survival. And its leaders themselves did not have any managerial experience.

As a result, a huge burden fell on the newly organized presidential administration under the leadership of Yeltsin's old ally from the Urals, Yuri Petrov. Both Yeltsin and Petrov were old party workers and, accordingly, saw the AP as an analogue of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The presidential administration was initially created in the image and likeness of the main party body.

The peculiarity of the Central Committee was that the committee stood, as it were, above all organs of power, without officially entering into their system. Everyone reported to him, and the Central Committee controlled everyone. But the Central Committee did not replace the ministries and departments, its main tool was the selection of personnel. The Central Committee approved several thousand leaders who were part of the nomenklatura.

The presidential administration gradually regained such powers in regional politics. The selection of governors and tracking the situation on the ground is the direct prerogative of the Presidential Administration. Another question is that the AP can no longer, like the Central Committee, select personnel for ministries. In this sense, the presidential administration does not have the power of the Central Committee, which, through the administrative department, carried out appointments in the army, and in the KGB, and in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in the prosecutor's office, and in the courts.

But in the absence of real political competition, the administration plays a crucial role in the political and public life of the country. In other countries, the "driving belt" is the ruling party, its apparatus, a faction in parliament. It is there that draft laws are born, the development strategy is determined, and the parameters of current and future policies are set.

Why the work of the AP is against the law

In Russia, it is not the parties that form the government, but the government creates a party named after itself and allows the "opposition" parties to function. Therefore, it is not surprising that the AP in its modern form, in addition to the tasks of ensuring the life of the head of state (in which it coincides with similar institutions in other countries, say, in the United States or France), is a political headquarters. It is there that the tasks that the parties are engaged in abroad are solved.

It is unimaginable that in the Washington White House the goals of the election campaign were formulated, the states were called from it regarding propaganda and agitation. One such call - and the new "Watergate" is ready.

In the US, taxpayer-funded officials cannot help any party or candidate. And calls on government communications or the use of official vehicles are such a violation. By the way, the White House apparatus does not even have a department that would be responsible for working with the states.

In Russia, they have become so accustomed to the established order of things that it no longer seems strange to anyone that officials interfere in the electoral and political process. As various governors repeated many times: "There is only one politician in Russia - the president." Based on this thesis, the current functions of the Presidential Administration are not something unacceptable.

Who works in the presidential administration

Numerous aides and advisers to the president are part of the AP. As a rule, they are either retired ministers and other senior officials, or third-party "specialists". The former, in fact, duplicate the relevant ministers. In the United States, the president's economic aides and advisers (there are several of them in different statuses) are purely experts and do not try to replace members of the cabinet.

The current head of the Presidential Administration, Anton Vaino, has become one of the youngest leaders in its history. He belongs to the post-Soviet generation of managers. Vaino, by origin, is not part of Putin's informal inner circle, although he cannot help communicating closely with the president in his position. Boris Yeltsin's administration also had such people. For example, Sergei Filatov was a kind of commissar from the “democrats” and was also not close to the head of state, just like Nikolai Bordyuzha and Alexander Voloshin.

Vaino is reminiscent of the last two. The same significant age difference with the president, excluding spiritual intimacy, and the same hypostasis of an executive technocrat. Only if Bordyuzha and Voloshin acted in an unstable era, when there was a fierce political struggle, then Vaino is a product of a calm, stable, predictable era. It is not for nothing that everything "political" was given to the much older Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy, who once served as head of government.

In its current form, the presidential administration can be maintained indefinitely if there are no political upheavals and challenges. Now the Presidential Administration is not designed for crisis management, and Putin's next six years do not involve sharp changes and crises.

But by the end of the last term of the current president, the question of a successor will urgently arise. And that's when the Presidential Administration can undergo significant changes - the same ones that took place in the last year of Boris Yeltsin's rule. At that moment, the presidential administration was a kind of military headquarters that manually controlled Russia and fought against the Luzhkov clan.

Stanislav Belkovsky to the site - about changes in the Presidential Administration, which actually do not exist.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of the national-state holiday (June 12, 2018). However, this is a purely formal formulation. There are no real changes. Only the names of petty clerks, who do not make any decisions, have changed.

Head of Administration Anton Vaino, his first deputies Sergei Kiriyenko and Alexei Gromov remained at their posts. Vaino is Vladimir Vladimirovich's de facto secretary. Does it happen that the leader is very attached to his secretary? And even marry him (marry him)?

It happens. Often. Google the list of bosses who have been married to their secretary - it's quite extensive, branched and tortuous.

Stanislav Belkovsky // freeze frame Youtube

Don't think anything bad. I myself, as a person with some managerial experience (of course, far from the same level as GDP), I understand very well: it is very important to have (in a good way) a secretary that you like. Life is short, and positive emotions can never be too much.

is a conceptual figure. He knows exactly what he wants and knows how to correctly formulate how to achieve it. But, at the same time, he is smart and wise enough not to demonstrate his intellectual superiority over others. It is completely technical and technologically advanced.

For this, Vladimir Putin appreciates him. Although initially Mr. Kiriyenko was not a member of his team. Rather, on the contrary - a possible competitor for the political and creative legacy of Boris N. Yeltsin.

Aleksey Alekseevich (I can’t address him less respectfully, with all my non-existent desire) Gromov is a classic KGB officer. At one time (1996), he was brought to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation by Sergei Yastrzhembsky, who was then appointed press secretary of President Yeltsin. In September 1998, Mr. Yastrzhembsky was fired for having supported—against the opinion of the Russian president's family—the candidacy of Yuri Luzhkov for the post of chairman of the federal government—and thus the de facto presidential successor. But Mr. Gromov clung to his position and has remained to this day. He won't leave. Hardware survivability is an important ontological property of a KGB agent.

Just look at Mr. Putin, huh?

But there is also some very good news.

Dmitry S. Peskov remained the press secretary and deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation. He is very charming. And (congenial, as Ostap Ibragimovich Bender-bey said in such cases), to his patron.

And this means that, in spite of everything, we will never get bored.

Get ready, friends. It will be interesting.

The material was published in the publication "Interlocutor" No. 23-2018.

Also, the president’s reluctance to seriously change the team is also associated with a high level of uncertainty due to Trump’s actions, which “we saw both just at the G7 meeting (which almost broke up before the G6) and on the Korean track,” the expert argues. In addition, the window for a major reshuffle in the Kremlin narrowed after the formation of a new government, which also turned out to be quite conservative, adds Pozhalov. The most important of the appointments in the administration was the appearance of a new head of the control department, Dmitry Shalkov, who “will be assigned a key role in the president’s internal assessment of the effectiveness of the government’s work on the implementation of the May decree,” the political scientist concludes.

Putin "doesn't make sense" to change the team with which he worked well in the middle of his 12-year presidential term, according to political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko. “They don’t change horses at the crossing,” he told RBC. “So far, we are seeing the stability of most groups of influence and the strengthening of the FSB: it’s not for nothing that two of the new appointees are from there (new presidential aides Dmitry Shalkov and Anatoly Seryshev).” New large-scale reshuffles in power may occur in 2020-2021 and will be timed to coincide with the next elections to the State Duma, the political scientist added. “And then the testing of a new successor team will begin, but it will be closer to the presidential elections,” Minchenko concluded.

Andrey Kolyadin names other terms. In his opinion, major reshuffles in the Kremlin will begin during the last year of Putin's presidency. Then "a constitutional reform can be carried out, which will accordingly change the structure of government in our country and leave the opportunity to influence the current events to the current team." Or the reshuffles in power will take place without reform, but in any case they will be radical and will affect both the government and the presidential administration, the expert continues. “These reshuffles will make it possible to form a new team for a new person who could guarantee the safety of the outgoing president,” Kolyadin is convinced.

Zones of Influence

The presidential decrees do not mention any redistribution of powers in the leadership of the Presidential Administration. It will be possible to judge whether any changes have taken place after the structure of the Kremlin administration becomes known. Namely, a list of departments and their leaders.

Sergey Ivanov and Anton Vaino (Photo: Alexey Nikolsky / TASS)

Anton Vaino has been the head of the Kremlin administration since August 2016, in this post. RBC's interlocutors in the Kremlin and those close to the presidential administration characterize Vaino as a person "who is absolutely in his place." At meetings with the administration, which Vaino holds twice a week, he always delves into all issues, and behaves correctly in communication with his subordinates, says one of the AP officials. At the same time, the head of the presidential administration is a very influential person, Putin trusts him and listens to his opinion, adds another employee of the Kremlin administration.

The first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, came to the Kremlin in October 2016, replacing Vyacheslav Volodin. Putin initially set long-term tasks for Kiriyenko, a source in the Kremlin told RBC earlier. But one of the most important tasks was to hold the most clean, without violations, presidential elections, he specified. As a result of the campaign, Vladimir Putin received a record result both in percentage terms and in absolute terms: 76.7% (56.4 million votes). The turnout was 67.5%.

Some time before his reappointment, Kiriyenko had conversations with his subordinates about their future work in the structure of the Kremlin’s domestic political bloc and the powers that would be assigned to them, two more interlocutors close to the presidential administration told RBC. This indicated that Kiriyenko was confident in keeping his post, the sources state.

Another first deputy head of the presidential administration, Alexei Gromov, is an old-timer among the Kremlin leadership. He has been working in the presidential administration for the longest time - since 1996, when he was appointed head of the Kremlin press service. Alexey Gromov is responsible for the media direction in the Kremlin: he oversees state television channels and other media. When the current speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, worked in the Kremlin, he tried to secure a number of media outlets for himself, RBC sources close to the Kremlin specified. But with the arrival of Kiriyenko in the Kremlin, the situation changed: both first deputy heads of the administration clearly divided the functional. For Gromov - the media, for Kiriyenko - social networks and the Internet, sources told RBC.

Dmitry Peskov (Photo: Mikhail Metzel / TASS)

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has served as chief presidential speaker for ten years. Peskov wanted to change his field of activity, he was interested in the position of presidential assistant for international affairs, RBC interlocutors close to the presidential administration said earlier. However, Peskov remained in his post, as did the presidential aide for international affairs, 71-year-old Yuri Ushakov.

Regions have one boss

In the current administration, Vladimir Putin will have three fewer assistants. Igor Shchegolev, who was in charge of the department for the use of information technologies and the development of electronic democracy, Vladimir Kozhin, who was in charge of military-technical cooperation, and Nikolai Tsukanov, who was in charge of the development of local self-government, lost their posts. The latter worked as an assistant to the president for only six months.

The problems of local self-government are very important, therefore, it was necessary to raise these issues at the level of the head of state by appointing a separate assistant, notes one of RBC's interlocutors close to the presidential administration. The fact that local self-government worries people was shown by the last direct line with Vladimir Putin - a large number of questions were devoted to this topic, the source adds. Tsukanov, as aide to the president, was quite active, managed to do some work, says another RBC interlocutor close to the Kremlin.

The logic behind the abolition of the position of local government assistant is that both local governments and regions should have a single curator, explains one of the sources. Tsukanov was responsible for local self-government, and Kiriyenko for the regions. “It is logical that one person supervises both,” RBC’s interlocutor clarifies.

Chief personnel officer of the security forces

Yevgeny Shkolov was not reappointed to the post of assistant to the president, in whose area of ​​​​responsibility there were such important areas as anti-corruption and personnel, as well as issues of presenting state awards.

An RBC source in the central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that without the signature of Shkolov, who oversaw personnel matters, including in law enforcement agencies, not a single appointment, not a single resignation of the general staff took place. At the same time, Shkolov "lacked the skill to work in the face of a clash of interests of various groups that have developed in law enforcement agencies," RBC's interlocutor noted.

FSB General Anatoly Seryshev, who served as deputy head of the Federal Customs Service, became the new assistant to the president, who replaced Shkolov. In this position, the official dealt with issues of coordination with law enforcement agencies. Before joining the FCS, Seryshev headed the FSB in Karelia.

Another new person among the assistants is the deputy director of the FSB, Dmitry Shalkov, who replaced Konstantin Chuichenko, who became the head of the government apparatus, in this post. Shalkov, like Chuichenko, headed the Kremlin's control department.

Surkov stays in Donbass

Vladislav Surkov also retained his post. Earlier, RBC sources close to the presidential administration said that. As reasons, the interlocutors cited a dead end in the strategy in the Ukrainian direction; conflicts with other departments, in particular, with the 5th service of the FSB, which is responsible for counterintelligence in the territories of the unrecognized republics of the DPR and LPR; personal desire of an official to leave his post. Alexey Chesnakov, director of the Center for Political Conjuncture, who is close to the official, also told RBC that Surkov might leave. “I don’t know how and when a decision will be made, but I have a feeling that Vladislav Yuryevich is unlikely to remain working in his current capacity,” he said.

Two RBC sources close to the Kremlin explained that Surkov retained the post of curator of Ukraine by the fact that Vladimir Putin has decided not to change his strategy in the Donbass direction for the time being. “The main arguments in favor of Surkov are the lack of suitable replacement figures and the risks of a redistribution of power and an aggravation of the situation in the Donbass after a possible change of curator,” one of the sources close to the presidential administration told RBC. “As a result, the change of the curator can lead to the undermining of stability in the region, and the freezing of the Minsk process is convenient for the Kremlin.”

As for the presidential advisers, three of them lost their posts: Sergei Grigorov, Alexander Bedritsky and who was responsible for the development of the Internet. According to one of the participants in the telecommunications market, German Klimenko and the presidential aide Igor Shchegolev, who supervised him, did not have any noticeable results, they could not find a “niche” for themselves in the administration - issues related to Internet companies, one way or another Gromov and Kiriyenko decided.