Translated material
Gastarbaiters governors
New Politics of the Kremlin: rejection of local personnel in the leadership of the regions
Meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with newly elected heads of regions. Photo: screenshot with video kremlin.ru
The Kremlin finally headed for the delegation of the “Varangians” to the posts of the heads of the regions, the autumn wave of resignation and appointments showed. If the power continues in the same spirit, then the “local” at the head of the territories will not be left soon. In connection with this practice, observers became extremely difficult to predict - who and where they would be appointed.
And here they did not guess
The Russian media put a kind of anti -record this fall. They covered in detail the cycle of the resignations of the governors, which touched on the heads of 11 regions and lasted almost three weeks: it began on September 25 with the dismissal of one of the heavyweights, the Samara leader Nikolai Merkushkin, and ended on October 12 by the transfer of the Governor of the Pskov Region, Andrei Turchak into the Secretary General of United Russia. Usually, in the case of such large-scale permutations, newspapers and Internet media love to demonstrate awareness and report in advance which regions will affect the permutation and who will replace the dismissed officials. But this time, not a single publication has coped with the second task.
Nobody managed to call at least one new governor in advance. On the contrary, all the names that the media voiced each time turned out to be erroneous. “As a result, in the last week we generally decided to move away from attempts to predict the name of the new governors, it turned out to be almost impossible,” the journalist of one of the leading newspapers told NT on the condition of anonymity.
If the power continues in the same spirit, then the "local" at the head of the territories will not remain soon
So, Gazeta.ru read to the post of governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region the first deputy head of the government of the government Maxim Akimov, although in the end the position of the first deputy minister of industry Gleb Nikitin went. The publication of RBC confidently put in the heads of the Krasnoyarsk Territory the head of Fano Mikhail Kotyukov, and in the heads of Dagestan, the deputy head of the Russian Guard Sergey Melikov. As a result, the posts went, respectively, to Alexander Uss and Vladimir Vasiliev.
Nonsense time
Why the predictions do not come true - it became clear enough. People who have nothing to do with these territories are delegated to the regions. Of the 11 new governors, only three were related to their “estates” - Samara Dmitry Azarov (was the mayor of Samara and the Senator from the region), Primorsky Andrei Tarasenko (born in Vladivostok) and Krasnoyarsk Alexander USS (was the speaker of the regional legislative assembly). Moreover, the latter, as NT previously reported, became the head of the region rather by chance: as a result of conflicts and problems at different levels, the Kremlin had to reject pre -selected people.
The remaining eight governors were committed by strangers for entrusted territories. For example, the new head of the Novosibirsk region Andrei Travnikov lived all his life in a distant Vologda region, where he managed to stay both the mayor of Cherepovets, the head of Vologda, and the vice-governor of the region. And the new governor of the Oryol region, the Communist Andrei Klychkov, was still considered one of the strongest Moscow politicians: in 2014, in the Mosgorduma elections, he managed to go around the powerful prefect of the southeastern district of the capital Vladimir Zotov in the territory subject to that.
The Kremlin has already practiced such transitions from the region to the region, but the traditions of the national republics have not yet been broken. In Dagestan, representatives of the largest local peoples - Avars and Dargins always alternated at the post of leader. Melikov, whom the insiders have experienced to the new heads of the region - also from the locals, Lezgin. And as a result, Vasiliev, who was appointed to the father of Kazakh, and the mother is Russian. This is certainly a revolution in the region.
Belonging to the local elite is now completely not important, confirms the interlocutor NT, familiar with the selection of the heads of regions. According to him, the sequence of selection is now revealed by the obvious logic - the presidential administration forms a personnel reserve, and only then the “estate” selected according to various principles, and their origin is almost not taken into account. There are regions in which there is a request for “their own”, but it doesn’t matter to many territories, the NT source in the Kremlin notes.
Every third is Varangian
The arrival of the so -called “Varangians” to the National Republics is the culmination of trends that have been emerged in the last two years. Of course, the “aliens” were previously appointed, but each time it was a special case, such as, for example, the arrival in 2010 to the post of mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin, a native of the Tyumen region. In the total mass, the Kremlin preferred “local”, it was customary to emphasize the origin.
For example, in the 2014–2015 season, from seven new governors (first by decrees set with the prefix of the acting, then the elect), five were “local”. But even people who came from outside at that time were hard to call strangers. So, the first deputy chairman of the government of the neighboring Khabarovsk Territory Alexander Levintal was sent to the Jewish Autonomous Region, but he was born in Birobidzhan and by nationality a Jew. And the head of the neighboring Amur region Oleg Kozhemyako was appointed the Sakhalin region.
The mass parish of the Varangians began in 2015-2016, when Vladimir Putin began to appoint his adjutants and employees of the government apparatus, despite geography. So, already on a single voting day of 2016, out of four new governors, the Varangians were three, including the former presidential guard Alexei Dyumin (a native of Kursk) headed the Tula region.
For the past 17 years, the authorities devoted to deprive the regional elites of the ability to resist
On the past single voting day of 2017, out of 11 new governors, nine were external to local elites. Among them, for example, the president’s adjutant, a native of Khabarovsk Dmitry Mironov (became the head of the Yaroslavl region) and a native of Omsk Dmitry Ovsyannikov (headed by Sevastopol) and a native of Omsk Sergey Chemezov).
In total, thanks to the appointments of the last three cycles, every third Russian governor became a “Varangian”. According to NT, 28 of the 85 managers of the regions were not born in their “estate”, and did not even work there in recent years before appointing. In 57 regions, the governors are still “local”.
The Kremlin can continue to reduce the number of "local" among governors. For the past 17 years, the authorities devoted to deprive the regional elites of the ability to resist. First, the rights and tax revenues were taken away from independent heads of regions, then the elections of governors were generally replaced by the appointment from the center. When the direct vote was returned, it quickly became clear that, due to new realities, the Kremlin could still be sent to the region, whom he wants.
The find is that it is possible to appoint the necessary head of the region that is required by the federal center. Propaganda television and law enforcement agencies controlled by the Center may not ensure that the locals are not opposed in almost any case and, accordingly, the election of the candidate on election day.
Clans and agreements
By what principles does the Kremlin use the opportunity to appoint the “Varangians” to the regions - it is not difficult to understand. There are three such principles in total, it follows from the analysis of the background of the appointment and information of NT sources.
In some cases, Putin sends to the places of close and promising, in his opinion, people whom he wants to test as the governor. In case of success, such “personnel” can return to Moscow for higher positions after some time - from ministers to candidates for “successors”, the interlocutor, who has repeatedly participated in the procedure for coordinating the heads of regions, claims to the Kremlin. Such people were appointed in the past two cycles: this is Dyumin and Mironov, and the head of the department of the agricultural industry of the Tver Government of the Tver Governor Igor Rudenya, and the former head of Asi, the Novgorod governor Andrei Nikitin, who worked under Putin-prime minister. Among the appointments of Putin, Anton Alikhanov, Kaliningrad Governor of Anton Alikhanov.
In other cases, the appointment is the result of lobbying federal business structures close to power, which are important to put a loyal person in an important region. For example, the new Nizhny Novgorod leader Gleb Nikitin, a protege of the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, he fell into his orbit back in the mid-2000s, when he worked in the Federal Property Management Agency, says an interlocutor close to the presidential administration. And the Primorsky leader Tarasenko is close to the Rotenberg clan, who have interests in the region. Rotenbergs collaborated with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosmorport", which previously headed the new governor, says NT interlocutor.
In other cases, the appointment is the result of lobbying federal business structures close to power, which are important to put a loyal person in an important region
The third case concerns political agreements, as a result of which there is a need to find a position for the right person. The most striking case is with the newly mentioned new head of Dagestan Vladimir Vasiliev and the dismissed by the Pskov leader Andrei Turchak. Their purpose and resignation were required in order to launch a whole chain of personnel permutations. According to NT, the root cause was the Kremlin’s desire to take control of “United Russia”, assigning a loyal politician to the key post. This turned out to be Turchak, but the position had to be released from the State Duma close to the Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Sergey Neverov. Then it was decided that as a compensation of unbeliefs will receive the post of leader of the Duma faction of United Russia. Vasiliev, who occupied this place, was sent to lead Dagestan - instead of Ramazan Abdulatipov, who had not succeeded in the position.
From the same series, the decision on the appointment of a communist Klychkov by the head of the Oryol region, and a member of the Just Russia Alexander Burkov (a native of the Sverdlovsk region) - the governor of the Omsk region. To maintain the loyalty of opposition parties, the Kremlin decided to make a deal with them - to give them to representatives one governor's post, the media previously reported. It was the result of such agreements that became these appointments.
Moreover, even in this case, the Kremlin does not appoint opposition to the regions that they understand. Power comes from logic: the opposition must be given to what is not a pity, notes a person close to the Kremlin. It is interesting that on the same principle in 2009, the head of the depressive and not interesting power clans of the Kirov region was the representative of the ATP Nikita Belykh - now arrested for a bribe.