Dmitry Medvedev / S. Porter / Vedomosti

In 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev proposed replacing officials on the boards of directors of state-owned companies with professional or independent directors - in order to improve the quality of corporate governance. In 2014, Prime Minister Medvedev agreed that officials should be returned to the boards - "in reasonable numbers and in reasonable positions." The government is returning them (see the article "Officials Will Become Directors Again," Vedomosti, 27.01.2014), but if ministers used to sit on the boards, now their status is limited to deputy (officials of even lower rank have been nominated to audit commissions). The rationale: to more closely monitor companies that are scheduled for privatization, and generally strengthen control over state-owned companies, improve coordination with ministries. That is, to improve the quality of governance again.

The fable-like nature of governance, which provides for all sorts of options for seating managers, is generally characteristic of the Russian system of power. In full accordance with it, one should not expect any special effect from the return of officials, just as there was none from their departure.

Of course, one can see in the current decision yet another evidence of a revision of the reformist legacy of Medvedev as president - most of his liberal initiatives either turned out to be declarations, or were emasculated, or curtailed. President Vladimir Putin clearly prefers control to development, and in the case of a huge state economy it is difficult to imagine otherwise - this is how it works (for now).

However, it cannot be said that in those three years when independent directors were delegated to the boards of state-owned companies, these companies showed any radically different results. The boards should include both independent directors and representatives of the state defending its interests as formulated by the government or departments, says Pavel Kudyukin, associate professor at the HSE Faculty of Public and Municipal Administration.

The entire Russian economy is characterized by low labor productivity - this is an indicator of management efficiency; it is clear that the migration of officials back and forth is not capable of solving the problem. The owner-management relationship in the case of large corporations is always complicated, but if top managers personally communicate with the president of the country and carry out political tasks, then the line of management through the boards of directors turns out to be somewhat flawed.

However, if the president cannot ensure sufficient control over their activities in personal communication with top managers, one can try to approach from another side. Perhaps the return of officials to the boards of directors is precisely an attempt to additionally control the management. Thanks for the attempt.

From the editor: Directors here and there