| The former chief of the General Staff will command the calmest federal district Yesterday, one of the few civilian plenipotentiary representatives of the president, Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Siberian Federal District Leonid Drachevsky, resigned. He will be replaced by a military man - General Anatoly Kvashnin, who was recently dismissed from his post as Chief of the General Staff.
Today the head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Medvedev, is due to fly to Novosibirsk. As Vremya Novostey was told in the plenipotentiary's office, he will introduce a new leader to the employees. On Thursday evening, a presidential decree was signed appointing Mr. Kvashnin as the new presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian Federal District.
Rumors about the resignation of Leonid Drachevsky have been circulating on the sidelines for a long time. It was rumored that the already middle-aged plenipotentiary was tired of Siberia and would like to return to work in Moscow. Ill-wishers said that in the capital they were dissatisfied with the victory in the elections of the head of the Altai Territory, Mikhail Evdokimov, and the failure of Alexander Surikov, supported by Mr. Drachevsky and the Kremlin, who, after his defeat, had to be employed in the same embassy. In addition, turnout in the elections of State Duma deputies in December 2003 and the presidential elections in March 2004 in Siberia was the lowest in the country, as was support for United Russia and Vladimir Putin.
According to the press secretary of the plenipotentiary representative, Olga Kurushina, back in August, Leonid Drachevsky met with the president in Moscow and asked for his resignation. During the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Tomsk, Drachevsky was summoned to the Kremlin administration. The plenipotentiary interrupted his holiday trip and flew to a reception with Dmitry Medvedev.
As officials from the plenipotentiary’s entourage say, at that moment it became clear to his subordinates that the issue of resignation had been resolved. In Moscow, Mr. Drachevsky wrote a letter of resignation and already on Thursday, September 8, returning to Novosibirsk, informed the apparatchiks of his dismissal. According to Mr. Drachevsky, he has been offered a high position in the government. It is expected that on Monday he will fly to a new place of work. (According to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Mr. Drachevsky’s new place of work may not be Moscow, but Brussels - the post of Russia’s permanent representative to the European Union).
Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexander Khloponin, in a conversation with reporters on Thursday, confirmed the resignation of the presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District Leonid Drachevsky. According to Khloponin, the plenipotentiary explained his decision by age (although Drachevsky is 59 years old and is only a year older than Anatoly Kvashnin). The head of the Krasnoyarsk Territory said that Mr. Drachevsky had done a lot to ensure that the region became stable. Governor Khloponin especially noted that Leonid Drachevsky “respected the position of the territories, there was no pressure on his part; It’s a pity to part with this person, but age is age.” At the same time, the Krasnoyarsk governor categorically denies the version of the resignation of the presidential representative in Siberia for political reasons. Indeed, Mr. Drachevsky has never been a public politician, much less had any conflicts with the federal government.
As for the institution of plenipotentiary representatives itself, it seems to be finally becoming an instance of political exile. Suffice it to remember that it was precisely by this logic of “honorary exile” that ex-Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, former Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, former Governor of St. Petersburg and Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Yakovlev became plenipotentiary representatives. Valentina Matvienko, who was dismissed from the post of Deputy Prime Minister, also passed through the embassy before becoming the Kremlin's candidate for St. Petersburg mayor.
For the ambitious General Kvashnin, who tried to independently determine the ideology of military development when he was Chief of the General Staff, a plenipotentiary mission in one of the calmest districts of Russia in modern times (there are no terrorists, hot spots are far away) is hardly the ultimate career dream. On the other hand, to consider this appointment as a strengthening of the power vertical by the security forces would also be an exaggeration. In the end, civilian Vladimir Yakovlev remains the plenipotentiary representative in the most troubled Southern Federal District, which includes the entire Russian Caucasus. Moreover, he replaced in this post precisely the military general Viktor Kazantsev, who was also not very successful in reconciling the Caucasus.
The current appointment is rather evidence that the institution of plenipotentiary representatives is clearly not key for the Kremlin in the system of governing the country. The problem of creating a single constitutional space in Russia and depriving governors of political ambitions was successfully resolved in the middle of Putin’s first term. And to really stabilize the situation in hot spots or improve life in depressed regions, the plenipotentiaries have neither the powers nor the financial support. Dmitry VINOGRADOV, Novosibirsk, Alexander KLIMOVICH, Krasnoyarsk, Ivan GORDEEV |
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