| The Ministry of Emergency Situations may become a victim of administrative reform The redistribution of the country's executive power system, which the Russian leadership has been working hard on in recent days, as the newspaper Vremya Novostei learned, is not excluded, but will not bypass the security bloc. As it turned out, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and its head Sergei Shoigu himself may fall under the plans to “optimize” the structure of the government. According to our data, this issue, along with the fate of purely civilian departments, is now being actively discussed at consultations among the country's top leadership. At the same time, the option is allegedly even being considered that the Ministry of Emergency Situations will cease to exist altogether, and there will be no place for Mr. Shoigu in the new cabinet of ministers. In addition, according to our information, against the backdrop of general government reform, talk has intensified about further improvement - both personnel and structural - of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. Although for them, possible changes will most likely be limited to the intradepartmental level.
Assumptions that government reform may affect the security forces are based solely on unofficial information, and so far none of the senior officials or politicians have commented on them. Moreover, at first - even when the name of the new prime minister had just become known - most observers agreed that the law enforcement bloc would not be affected by the unexpectedly blowing “winds of change”. Although, it must be admitted, experts reasoned, following only one logic and based only on indirect signs, that President Putin, when announcing a change of government, spoke about a new economic course and that, as expected, he did everything he expected with the security forces , back in the spring of last year. In addition, it should be noted that while we are talking specifically about discussing plans, the implementation of which depends on the decision of the president - the appointment of heads of law enforcement agencies and, in general, any organizational restructuring are exclusively within his competence.
However, in any case, the very fact that the current government reform has sparked a discussion about the feasibility of the existence of the Ministry of Emergency Situations as such can be considered no less unexpected and sensational than the appointment of Mikhail Fradkov as the new prime minister. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, given the frequency and scale of the cataclysms that periodically shake the country, has long earned a reputation as one of the most necessary federal departments. At the same time, in the entire system of executive power it remained the only island of stability and order. Unlike all other ministries and state committees, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has never been seriously reformed, has never weakened its positions, and, on the contrary, has only consistently increased its potential. Relatively recently, in 2002, the Ministry of Emergency Situations almost tripled its number at the expense of firefighters, who were transferred to its subordination from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, is now generally an exceptional figure on the Russian political horizon. Even by Soviet standards, he can be considered an old-timer and record holder of power. He has been a member of the government continuously since 1990, when he stood at the origins of the creation of the then State Committee for Emergency Situations, which in 1994 was transformed into a ministry.
Over the years, Mr. Shoigu has managed to become, without exaggeration, one of the main “calling cards” of the Russian government, no less recognizable than both Russian presidents. No matter what “emergency” happened in the country, it was Sergei Shoigu - in his invariable red jacket - who usually gave a television interview right from the scene of the tragedy, being the first to inform people about what happened and why. Moreover, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations did not limit himself to the role of a purely “technical” representative of the authorities and almost always immediately named the alleged culprits of death or destruction, arranging public reprimands of governors and even other ministers (as was the case after the floods in Yakutia in 2001 and in the south of Russia in 2002) .
What exactly is causing the talk about the unenviable future of the Ministry of Emergency Situations is still unknown. But, according to available data, it is quite realistic that the country’s leadership is now discussing, among other things, the option of completely disbanding the Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to it, it is assumed that the “assets” of the ministry can be divided between several structures: civil defense troops (about 20 thousand people) will go to the Ministry of Defense; regional departments of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations - with subordinate search and rescue services and fire departments - can be transferred under the leadership (and full funding) of local authorities. With this option, the fate of only the federal services of the Ministry of Emergency Situations remains unclear - the Central Airmobile Rescue Squad "Tsentrospas", the Center for Special Risk Rescue Operations "Leader", regional (by district) search and rescue centers, the Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Center for Monitoring and Forecasting of Emergency Situations , VNII, etc. But given the relative small number of staff in these services, it is clear that, as part of “optimization,” they may well be subordinated to one of the ministries that “survived” after the reform. Mr. Shoigu himself, if there is no portfolio for him in the government, according to rumors, may leave to lead one of the Siberian regions. In any election, thanks to Shoigu’s reputation and national fame, it is clear that victory will be guaranteed to him.
As for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, according to our information, serious internal changes may occur there in the near future. In particular, for the police, the issue of merging the investigative and inquiry bodies into one service is being considered, as well as a new redistribution of functions between different headquarters. At the same time, the issue with the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be finally resolved - since the end of last year he has been headed by Rashid Nurgaliev with the rank of acting minister. In the FSB, according to our information, new serious personnel changes in the leadership may be undertaken in the coming days.
Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu was born in 1955 in the Tuvan town of Chadan. Father - Kuzhuget Shoigu - a successful Soviet official, former deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of Tuva. In 1977, Sergei Shoigu graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic Institute. He worked in construction organizations in Siberia, in 1988 he was appointed second secretary of the Abakan city committee of the CPSU. Since 1990 - Deputy Chairman of the State Construction Committee of the RSFSR, which at that time was headed by Boris Yeltsin. At the end of 1990, on the initiative of Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Rescue Corps was formed, which was soon transformed into a state committee, and in 1994 into the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In January-May 2000, simultaneously with the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Government. Since 1996, Sergei Shoigu has been a member of the Russian Security Council. In May 2003, he was awarded the military rank of army general. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, awarded the Order “For Personal Courage” and the medal “Defender of Free Russia”. Since April 1995, he was a member of the council of the “Our Home is Russia” party, but did not take an active part in the affairs of the movement. Since September 1999, he has been the leader of the federal list of the Unity bloc, but after the 2003 elections he refused his deputy mandate. Victor PAUKOV, Ravil LATYPOV |
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