Person with his own face

Leonid Gozman about the appointment of Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of the presidential administration

Most of the Kremlin’s personnel decisions leave people indifferent-who was especially excited due to the appointment of Naryshkin with the main in spies, and Fradkov-by steam locomotives? Kiriyenko’s appointment is a completely different matter.

Firstly, Kiriyenko is a person with his own face, which is now rare. Secondly, a person who is unambiguously associated with the political line that has been exposed for fifteen years.

For many people of our political views - both my and a significant part of the readers of the “new” - any high -ranking official, by definition, is a scoundrel and accomplice of corruption and all other crimes. I think this is too much simplification.

Kiriyenko is a very multifaceted person and often unexpected. In 1999, he became chairman of the ATP faction. And excellent chairman. Our faction is more than thirty bright ambitious public people who have come to the Duma in completely different ways and are not always good at each other. But no one left, conflicts did not grow into scandals, and the faction worked as a single subject. By the way, I heard good reviews about him and as about the envoy in the Volga District, and as the head of Rosatom.

I remember how, together with Nemtsov and Sysuev, armed with a bottle of vodka, he, the head of the government, went to the striking miners - and they could, after all, and fill the face

Everyone remembers that it was in his premiere that was default, for which he certainly did not answer. More reason to blame him for erupting the volcano in the Pacific Ocean than in the then state of the Russian economy. But I did not hear from him a single bad word to the predecessors. What he thought of them, I don’t know, but he behaved as if he was personally to blame for everything. He is not a coward at all. I remember how, together with the deputy prime ministers Nemtsov and Sysuev, armed with a bottle of vodka, he, the head of the government, went to the striking miners-but they could fill the face.

He is a decent person. The quality in politics is rare, in ours - the rarest. I do not remember that he was deceiving someone. When he said yes, it was “yes”. Just like no. The people who came with him in the ATP were devoted to him and believed him, and he was devoted to them. Those who will interact with him in his new position will face a serious and tough partner (or opponent), but may not be afraid to become a victim of bams and a turn. Who knows our political cuisine, understands that it is worth a lot.

He is not afraid of smart people. Not otherwise than because he considers himself smart. He thinks adequately. And he remembers that in addition to official there are personal relationships. At the funeral of Nemtsov, from which the Kremlin defiantly distant, he was one of the few representatives of the highest layer of the elite. It is bad, of course, that normal human behavior becomes an act of civil courage, but what to do?

And for all, I don’t understand why Putin appointed him? Maybe there is no one else - the bench is not just short, but it is not at all? Before the fateful statement of plutonia, one could think that this is some kind of signal to someone here or there, that we, they say, are not only appointing Orthodox Stalinists or idiots, here you have Kiriyenko. But now what signals, except for air anxiety signals? Maybe he put him because he knows exactly as a decent person and understands that no matter how it was up there, Kiriyenko would not cling to his throat? How many of his own can he be sure of this?

Of course, Putin set him any tasks. Election-2018 Ensure? May be. But what am I sure of is that Kiriyenko himself believes that the solution of these problems is important for the country. He is one of those who will never agree that “the worse, the better”, if only because smart. Surely he accepted this post not in order to get another bang - he already had them unraveled - or to be closer to the body. Why should he?

He believes that he will succeed, although he understands the restrictions and barriers of the system exactly no worse than you and me. What he is going to do does not necessarily like people like me and you. Of course, as an intelligent person, he will not deepen the obscurantist vector of our development, and it is not necessary to invite him for this - everything is in order with this. But I would not expect liberalization either - his employer may have other plans. However, it is better to lose with smart than to find with a fool.

We are clearly waiting for great turbulence and, in general, difficult times. If there are at least a certain number of decent people on the upper floors, we will survive them a little easier.

PS

From the editorial office. Earlier, we wrote about the possible appointment of a key position in the AP Dmitry Rogozin. This option was really considered in the Kremlin to the last. And, apparently, now many exhaled with relief. The next presidential election will not be overseeing Rogozin, but Kiriyenko, but this is at least a completely different style that has nothing to do with patriotic populism. Now it is also worth observing the fate of the Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin.