Putin liquidated Rossvyaz and Rospechat

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree abolishing the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications (Rospechat) and the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz). The text of the document was published on Friday on the Kremlin website.

The functions of the abolished agencies were transferred to the Ministry of Digital Development. It becomes the legal successor "including the obligations arising from the execution of court decisions." In addition, Roskomnadzor is under the authority of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the document says.

The decision was made "in order to improve public administration", "reduce administrative barriers, optimize the powers of the federal executive authorities and the number of federal civil servants." The decree came into force from the date of signing.

The TASS agency reported , citing the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development, that Rossvyaz and Rospechat will be eliminated “seamlessly”, and departmental employees will continue to work as part of the ministry.

The change in structure is connected with the optimization of the public administration system, announced by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on November 16. In the process of reform, which will begin on January 1, 2021 and end on April 1, it is planned to reduce the staffing of the central offices of federal bodies by 5%, and territorial ones by 10%. The payroll will remain the same.

The fact that the Russian government is discussing the liquidation of Rossvyaz and Rospechat was announced on November 17 by the head of the Committee on Information Policy and Communications Alexander Khinshtein. According to him, the attempt to create three levels of executive power - ministries, services, agencies - failed.