Translated material
Folding hands
Anatoly Kvashnin became the main evidence of the crisis of the institution of plenipotentiary representatives
The presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian Federal District, Anatoly Kvashnin, turned out to be the most unpopular of the seven plenipotentiary representatives of the head of state. According to the latest VTsIOM survey, only 22% of Russians evaluate its activities positively. At the same time, 51% of respondents are dissatisfied with the work of Mr. Kvashnin. But the problem is not so much in the personality of a particular plenipotentiary, but in the institution itself. The fact is that it is in the Siberian Federal District that active political processes have been taking place over the past six months, and the resources allocated to the plenipotentiaries are not enough to effectively “resolve” conflict situations.Plenipotentiary Representative Kvashnin is no exception; Russian residents rate the work of presidential deputies in the regions almost worse than all other institutions of power. Moreover, over the six and a half years of the existence of the institution of plenipotentiaries, citizens have not begun to understand fundamentally more about the meaning of their activities than at the very beginning of the process.
It is curious that only one of the seven plenipotentiaries has been in office since its formation - Georgy Poltavchenko (Central District). Mr. Poltavchenko is considered a figure personally close to the president. Rumors continue to circulate that he will someday be able to lead Moscow instead of Yuri Luzhkov. Even during the existence of popular gubernatorial elections, Mr. Poltavchenko participated in resolving conflicts between contenders for gubernatorial positions. Now, however, there are no special problems in the Central Federal District and Mr. Poltavchenko has no reason to demonstrate his professionalism.
Anatoly Kvashnin is the only purely military plenipotentiary. He commanded the Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus, and since 1997 was the Chief of the General Staff of the country's Armed Forces and at the same time First Deputy Minister of Defense.
Deputy head of the Center for Political Technologies Alexei Makarkin reminded Vremya Novostey that after a civilian, Sergei Ivanov, became Russia’s Minister of Defense, Anatoly Kvashnin turned out to be “the country’s main general”: “When Marshal Igor Sergeev (Yeltsin’s last Minister of Defense) was removed. - Ed. ), Kvashnin achieved that he became the main general. It was a strong hardware victory over Sergeev. And in 2004, from the post of “chief general” he moved to the post of plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian district. Moreover, this happened at a time when the importance of plenipotentiary representatives decreased somewhat compared to the time the institute was created in 2000.”
The decision to appoint Anatoly Kvashnin as the presidential representative in the Siberian District was made after the general agreed to travel from Moscow to Novosibirsk. In 2004, Leonid Drachevsky, who served as plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian District for four years, resigned. According to the official version, Mr. Drachevsky submitted his resignation “due to age” himself. However, experts believe that the Kremlin has found a convenient excuse to get rid of the plenipotentiary, who was unable to ensure a high voter turnout in the 2004 presidential elections. In addition, in the Duma elections in 2003, it was the regions of Siberia that showed the lowest support for United Russia.
In fairness, it should be recalled that immediately after his resignation from the post of head of the General Staff in July 2004, according to unofficial data, the Kremlin offered Mr. Kvashnin the position of one of the deputy chairmen of the Federation Council, but he refused the position. Some analysts predicted Anatoly Kvashnin to be the governor of one of the regions, but, apparently, it seemed too small to the former second-in-command in the country’s military department.
It is impossible to say that Mr. Kvashnin somehow stands out from his colleagues. This is the ex-plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, who was not recognized as obviously weak, and the former presidential representative in the Volga region, Sergei Kiriyenko, who did not receive a formal promotion to Rosatom. Nevertheless, it is in the Siberian District that active political processes are taking place, drawing attention to the activities of the Plenipotentiary General.
It was in this district that complex unification processes took place. For example, it was possible to unite the Irkutsk region and the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug only on the second attempt. It was planned to enlarge the region for the first time back in 2003. However, due to the fact that the heads of the regions then presented the federal center with an impressive list of objects requiring financing, the process was stopped, and the President of Russia did not reappoint the Irkutsk Governor Boris Govorin for a new term. The new governor of the Irkutsk region, Alexander Tishanin, spoke again about the unification of the region and the district and, in fact, did everything in his power. True, in a rather complex process of unification, the plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian Federal District withdrew with the emergence of the first disagreements between the local elites.
The process of unification of the Altai Territory and the Republic of Gorny Altai , on which the plenipotentiary representative insisted, has practically reached a dead end. At the beginning of October this year, Mr. Kvashnin held a meeting on the issue of unification, where he invited the leadership of both regions. After this, the head of the republic, Alexander Berdnikov, sent an appeal to the president, in which he expressed his negative position on the issue of unifying the republic with the Altai Territory. The situation began to heat up - numerous rallies against the unification were held in the republic, and local deputies also spoke out against it.
“But the result of Kvashnin’s activities corresponds to his capabilities, the capabilities of the institute that he represents,” says Alexey Makarkin. - This is by no means the governor general, his task is to monitor the situation in the region and represent the president. I’m not even sure that superplenipotentiary Dmitry Kozak could unite the two Altai. Here a lot depends on the situation, and not on the person. Here the situation is closer to Adygea and the Krasnodar Territory than, for example, to the Perm Territory and the Komi-Permyak District.”
Currently, Plenipotentiary Representative Kvashnin is not very successful in resolving the situation in the most depressed region of Siberia - Tuva. In November, the federal authorities had to intervene in the parliamentary crisis in the republic: the Supreme Khural could not meet for a meeting after the elections on October 8 due to the disagreement of some deputies (representatives of the Party of Life, which has now become part of A Just Russia) with their results. Anatoly Kvashnin, accompanied by representatives of the presidential administration and State Duma deputies, is trying to guide the Tuvans on the right path. But so far no success.