23.02.09

The presidential administration releases its management personnel reserve list. President Medvedev is supposed to pick new ministers and regional leaders from this list. A number of appointments have been made already, but the big rotations in the federal government are expected in March.

A list of the first hundred people in the presidential reserve of management personnel was released yesterday. The presidential administration has been working on this list for about six months. The candidates for the reserve were nominated by 172 experts from various fields. Sergei Naryshkin, head of the presidential administration, told a press conference that the experts will not be identified. Each expert was asked to nominate up to 11 candidates: three people at most from federal or regional governments, three people from business, and up to two people from academia, education, or non-governmental organizations. Naryshkin explained that this resulted in a list of 1,211 people; the first hundred, who will meet with President Dmitri Medvedev in March, have been chosen via a rating principle from those who received the most votes.

A Kremlin source told us that the experts included Vladislav Surkov, senior deputy head of the presidential administration; Oleg Govorun, head of the Kremlin's domestic policy directorate; Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin; and a number of regional leaders.

Naryshkin said that the experts were advised to focus on managers under 35 years old, but not all of them did so.

One of the experts told us that the list has ended up including practically all of Russia's young public servants who have risen to a certain rank. A source close to the Kremlin says that the president's top hundred is likely to be used for appointing officials at the level of federal minister or regional leader; they are appointed by the president. The reserve includes Andrei Turchak, recently nominated by President Medvedev for governor of the Pskov region - and Garry Minkh, appointed last week as the president's representative in the Duma.

A close acquaintance of one person on the reserve list told us that the regional section of the list includes at least two future regional leaders. According to this source, the business executives who made the list are likely to be appointed to the boards of state-controlled companies.

One expert told us that the personnel reserve list will be used in March, when some major changes in the government are planned. According to our source, these changes had been expected in autumn of 2008, but they were postponed due to the war in the Caucasus and the start of the crisis. President Medvedev warned yesterday that some personnel changes are on the way; the previous day, he replaced four regional leaders.

The regional section of the list is full of regional leaders' proteges. Dmitri Svatkovsky, minister for investment policy in the Nizhny Novgorod region, made the list at the request of Governor Valery Shantsev. A presidential administration source told us that Oleg Kuvshinnikov, mayor of Cherepovets, might have made the list at the request of Vologda Governor Vyacheslav Pozgalev, or at the request of Severstal.

Some of the business representatives were nominated by the heads of their companies. The list includes UC Rusal CEO Alexander Bulygin, Yandex General Director Arkady Volozh, VTB 24 CEO Mikhail Zadornov, VimpelCom General Director Alexander Izosimov, Aton President Yevgeny Yuriev, and SUEK General Director Vladimir Rashevsky.

Most of the executives we approached for comments say they don't intend to become state officials. A Kremlin administration source says that these people won't necessarily receive state appointments; rather, being on the reserve list is like a mark of quality.

Stanislav Naumov, deputy minister for industry and trade: "It's nice to make the list. I was on last year's personnel reserve list, compiled by United Russia. After that, I was promoted - from department head to deputy minister."

Read More about Services from Alinga Consulting Group

Source: "Vedomosti"