Translated material
Cross pollination
Vladimir Putin appointed Igor Shuvalov first among equals
Now all seven deputy prime ministers know exactly who is replacing whom. Yesterday it became known that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the distribution of responsibilities in the event of the temporary absenceof top government officials , including himself.The vices were divided into pairs: Zubkov - Shuvalov, Zhukov - Kudrin, Ivanov - Sobyanin - in the absence of one, the other considers his questions. Igor Sechin did not get a partner, he has no one to replace him, but Sergei Ivanov will replace him. The honorable duty to replace Vladimir Vladimirovich in his absence rests with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, and not with former Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
Let us recall that in the current government, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov oversees agriculture, forestry, and fishing. But another first vice, Igor Shuvalov, is responsible for international relations, regional development, competition issues and antitrust policy, as well as ensuring road safety. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov is in charge of education, health care and social security, sports and the Olympics in Sochi, interaction with religious associations and housing and communal services. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov oversees the defense industry, transport and communications. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin is responsible for socio-economic development, financial, monetary, tax, and budget policy. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin is the curator of industry and energy, environmental management and ecology. Deputy Prime Minister - Chief of Staff Sergei Sobyanin is responsible for the effectiveness of the activities of executive authorities, state policy in the field of mass communications and the media.
The most interesting thing in the resolution on the distribution of responsibilities of deputy prime ministers is not even how Alexei Kudrin will cope with sports in the absence of Alexander Zhukov or how deeply Igor Shuvalov will manage to penetrate the problems of agriculture and fishing, replacing Viktor Zubkov, the main thing is who Vladimir Putin will leave matters to .
In the governments of Fradkov and Zubkov, it was not customary to name a “successor” in case of absence of the head of the cabinet. Moreover, in both of these governments the first deputy prime ministers did not overlap, apparently to allow the “junior” ones to also join in the full power. But the two previous prime ministers did not dare to name a locum tenens - either they were afraid of bad omens, or they could not come to an agreement. As the then head of the government apparatus, Sergei Naryshkin, explained, they decided to replace them one by one. By the way, no one replaced Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov - they didn’t have time.
Vladimir Putin is confident in his abilities, he is not afraid of acceptance: he himself was a successor, and found himself. And in general, he has no one to negotiate with; whatever he says, so be it. The result was Igor Shuvalov, who worked with Mr. Putin when he first joined the government and then became a loyal ally in the Kremlin administration.
Experts have already seen in this new diagonals, as well as parallels and perpendiculars of power. First of all, it should be noted that in the current government there is no familiarity, when the duties of the first deputy prime minister in his absence are performed by a junior in rank, as was the case in previous cabinets. It is logical that in this case the first deputy prime minister will also replace the prime minister. And despite all the merits of Viktor Zubkov, Mr. Shuvalov became such a person.
It is clear what this means in terms of the position of Igor Shuvalov himself in the government - his political weight has clearly increased. How will such elevation affect the remaining deputy prime ministers? Obviously, Mr. Zubkov, who, although he will replace Mr. Shuvalov himself in his absence, has not advanced far; apparently, the functions assigned to him are his current limit. The old-timers of the government, Deputy Prime Ministers Kudrin and Zhukov, out of old friendship, will simply cover each other. But Sergei Ivanov was entrusted with newcomers - Sechin and Sobyanin, the latter will have to replace Mr. Ivanov himself. However, this can hardly be considered a “promotion.” Igor Sechin became a kind of outsider; he was not trusted to replace anyone.
And yet, the current exchanges of responsibilities are not like the previous ones, when the head of government removed himself from business as much as possible, trusting his deputy to “steer.” It can be assumed that even on vacation, Mr. Putin will lead his usual active lifestyle and will find time for important government affairs and meetings. Meetings of the full government will be held no more than once a month, so there is a high probability that Igor Shuvalov will not hold any of them as chairman. You can only distinguish yourself on the government presidium. But it is not yet entirely clear what these events will be and in what form they will take place.