ASI management has been tasked with doing something very important

The appointment of the leadership of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) not only did not clarify, but also complicated the answer to the question of the future status of the agency and its prospects. Like the United Popular Front (UNF), ASI, based on the statements made yesterday by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will have to independently find its own use, funding and reason for existence. The head of ASI Andrei Nikitin and his colleagues are not worried about this: they are ready to engage in any “innovative” activity, from supporting private kindergartens in Russia to advertising the Olympics in deep space.

The announcement by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of the results of the competition to select the general director of ASI and his deputies in specialized areas of activity did not add clarity to what exactly ASI is seen in the eyes of the government. ASI, registered as an autonomous non-profit organization (ANO), will be headed not by “iconic” figures, but by entrepreneurs and mid-level officials, who are already well integrated into the government.

The head of ASI, Andrey Nikitin, based on the data of the registration authorities, is Sergei Fakhretdinov’s junior partner in the Ruskompozit holding, under whose control are two large producers of fiberglass and composite materials, primarily for road construction, in Ufa (Steklonit) and Tver ( "Tversteklovolokno, since 2008). In 2009, Mr. Nikitin owned 20% of the shares of JSC Management Company "Ruskompozit" (the sales division of the group, 80% was controlled by Mr. Fakhretdinov), in 2010, 100% of the shares of the JSC were transferred to the Cyprus offshore Steklonit Holdings. "Ruskompozit" "in 2011, he entered into an agreement with Rosmolodezh to sponsor the Seliger forum. 31-year-old Andrei Nikitin, a graduate of the State Institute of Management and the MBA course at the Stockholm School of Economics, has been working in structures affiliated with Mr. Fakhretdinov since 2002. In general, there is reason to believe that the new head of ASI gives the agency administrative capabilities even at the level of “Business Russia”, no.

Mr. Nikitin’s competitors at the competition, who became his subordinates, are also known in narrow professional circles. Artem Avetisyan, director of the New Business direction, is the head of the NEO Center group, specializing in valuation activities (partners: Sberbank, VTB 24, Gazprom, energy companies) and actively developing a consulting division. "NEO Center" has been a partner of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum since 2007. Dmitry Peskov, director of the “Young Professionals” direction, worked at MGIMO until 2008, now he is the head of the Metaver project group, known for its participation in the creation of the Skolkovo Open University, Strelka University and the RuCamp project. Vladimir Yablonsky, who will oversee ASI’s social projects, has since 1993 headed the main analytical structure of the Moscow government in education, the state educational institution “Training and Methodological Center for Information and Analytical Work.” The center, in particular, in 2010 was the developer of an “electronic queue” system for distributing Moscow children to kindergartens. All four ASI leaders have only one thing in common - being exposed to “innovative” projects of the federal government, from the “personnel reserve” to “innovation conferences.” However, none of the four ASI directors had a leading role anywhere.

However, it seems that ASI will not receive any formal powers, at least for now: the government press service emphasized the “advisory and analytical” status of the central directorate of ASI the day before. Vnesheconombank, in turn, allocated a deputy chairman, Mikhail Poluboyarinov, to support ASI, but there are no guarantees that VEB will finance ASI projects on non-market conditions. ASI intends to collect the projects themselves in the regions and has already begun this work. Getting acquainted with ASI's proposals "from the ground" causes a difficult impression - the "initiatives" published by the agency as competitive applications are a close analogue of the "youth business projects" of the Seliger forum and are of interest more to anthropologists than to bank credit committees. Finally, Vladimir Putin did not explain yesterday how exactly ASI will be able to participate in the work of “identifying and removing administrative barriers,” that is, to engage in the functions of the Ministry of Economy and the FAS.

The situation with the ASI is close in meaning to the ONF - despite the fact that the government is ready to spend a sufficient amount of attention and time on projects such as “youth policy” in 2005-2009, they are not provided with any formal status or resources. In any case, it is unlikely that ASI, as previously assumed (see Kommersant on May 10), will be able in its current form to compete with the “innovative” projects of President Dmitry Medvedev, much less perform any government functions. Thus, despite all the problems of the Skolkovo Foundation, the status, basic functions, and sources of financing of the “innocity” are much more clear. Most likely, as in the case of the ONF, the meaning of creating ASI will be determined “on the fly” - or rather, it should be invented by the agency’s management.

Dmitry Butrin, Irina Parfentyeva

Agency of cosmic proportions