23.02.09

This week Medvedev published on his website a list of All the President's Men - a hundred of top reservists he will count on in his efforts to put fresh blood into Russia's ruling establishment. On that list one sees both officials of federal and regional bodies of state power, business people, politicians, and members of the scientific community and non-governmental organizations.

The replacement of current establishment with the reservists has already begun and the recent dismissal of four regional governors is a proof.

Medvedev said "personnel rotation will continue".

All The President’s Men

The presidential staff said the top hundred includes "the brightest of the bright." Although analysts doubted the potential recruits are able to do a far better job than their predecessors, they noted that the very principle of personnel selection has changed. The list of aspirants now incorporates representatives from many centers of Russia's elite.

"Secret service folks lose political weight." "Era of St. Petersburg lobby draws to a close," Russian dailies commented.

The aggregate reserve will consist of three tiers - presidential, federal, and regional.

The first tier will have a thousand names, the second - 5,000, and the third - over 16,000. Their names will be published on the presidential website by installments.

President Medvedev for the first time declared his personnel reserve program in July 2008. A special panel was formed to select and train managerial personnel. The chief of the presidential staff, Sergei Naryshkin, was appointed to chair the panel.

Naryshkin said the top one hundred reservists comprise "efficient managers who are rather well-known to the nation."

Indeed, of the 36 federal civil servants 26 are already employed at the federal government's office, and the others - at the State Duma or the presidential staff. On the same list there are 22 regional officials. Thirty-one represent big businesses, and eight - science, education and non-governmental organizations.

Although the panel recommended to nominate at least 25 percent of managers under 35 years of age, a greater share of "the presidential thousand" are people over 40. Younger people (under 30) account for about 10 percent, and women, for about as much.

Naryshkin said the program offers no specific career opportunities. It merely increases the candidates' chances. It is expected that as soon as vacancies emerge in the bodies of state power, state-run corporations, or private businesses, the employers will be able to leaf through the list to select candidates.

Selection Yardsticks

Naryshkin said a community of 170 most known and authoritative people named the candidates. Their names, in contrast to that of candidates, will not be disclosed to protect them from lobbying pressure.

The selection criteria comprise age - 25-50 years, higher education, managerial capabilities, competence, success and strategic analysis ability.

Naryshkin said the first appointments of personnel reservists had been made already. The chief of the government legal department, Garry Minkh, became the presidential representative in the State Duma, and Federation Council member Andrei Turchak became Pskov regional governor.

The daily Vedomosti quotes one of the experts who had selected reservists as saying the reserve will be "committed to action" in March, when sweeping reshuffles in the government are due. According to the analyst, they had been originally scheduled for last autumn, but were postponed due to the war in the Caucasus and the beginning of the crisis.

"Medvedev stakes on young and well-versed liberally-minded technocrats," the RBC Daily quotes the deputy president of the Political Technologies Center, Alexei Makarkin, as saying. "In most cases there are either civil servants, who have climbed all the way up the career ladder and are now prepared to start their own business, or businessmen carving for power."

Although business people on the list feel flattered, far from all are willing to become civil servants.

Most of the business people the daily Vedomosti has questioned replied they were in no mood of taking civil service jobs. AFK Sistema President Leonid Melamed said nobody had ever discussed with him the possibility of being moved to a government post.

"I believe I am at the peak of my career now," Melamed said.

"I am prepared for all-round cooperation within the framework of this project, but I have not considered the possibility of embarking on a civil servant's career myself," said Vimpelcom General Director Alexander Izosimov.

Putin’s Strongmen Losing Ground?

"It looks like the clan of (former President Vladimir) Putin's strongmen is losing ground," says political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko, adding that all of the four recently dismissed governors were representatives of that clan.

"Whatever the flaws of the selection process, the list has proved a unique phenomenon in internal policies," says the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "Over the nine years of Vladimir Putin's rule we have seen people from the president's inner circle - friends, university mates and former colleagues in the secret service - rise to senior posts. Dmitry Medvedev's list, however improvised, incorporates representatives from diversified quarters of Russia's political elite. Nobody can describe the personnel reserve as a club of strongmen with backgrounds in the secret service or law enforcement, of people from St. Petersburg, or businessmen. The very principle of personnel selection has changed. It looks like a new style in Russian politics."

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Source: Itar-Tass