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National Projects Moved to Back Seat

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/375139.htm
10 March 2009

By Anatoly Medetsky MT / Staff Writer

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has disbanded the Cabinet department responsible for the four national projects, seen as Dmitry Medvedev's springboard to the presidency.

Even so, the projects — seeking to develop farming, health care, education and affordable housing since 2006 — will move ahead and remain a spending priority, a Cabinet spokesman said Monday.

The change in running the projects underlines their much lower profile now that they have lost the role of a powerful campaign tool for Medvedev, who easily won the presidential election on March 2, 2008. It also reflects new government priorities as the crisis buffets the economy.

The government has yet to make good on promises to give a grand accounting of what the projects have accomplished, and hopes that it will do so appear increasingly dim with the elimination of the department.

Putin, in announcing the Cabinet change on Friday, ordered the creation of an industry and infrastructure department to replace the departments for the national projects and sectoral development. Supervision over the national projects was transferred to the new department and the departments for education, social development and agriculture.

The shuffle aims to "strengthen coordination" in carrying out the projects and to cut staff to save money in the economic crisis, the Cabinet said in a statement. The Cabinet has cut 158 jobs, it said in a separate statement, without giving a figure for total staff.

In announcing the job cuts, the Cabinet has followed the Kremlin's lead. President Medvedev's administration will lose at least 100 out of its 1,500 jobs as a cost-cutting measure, the Kremlin said last month.

In a sign that the national projects department's days were numbered, its chief asked — and received permission — to step down more than two months ago. Its chief was Boris Kovalchuk, the son of billionaire banker Yury Kovalchuk.

"The department, no doubt, played a very important role in the implementation of the national projects," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

As the other departments take over the work, they will each appoint a deputy chief in charge of the projects, Peskov said.

"The work is being perfected, intensified and broadened," Peskov said.

Peskov reiterated that the national projects remained a spending priority for the government. Putin stated as much at the latest government meeting on the projects in February. He didn't name the amount that would be spent.

The housing project will get three times as much federal money this year as last year, or more than 400 billion rubles ($11.2 billion), Regional Development Minister Viktor Basargin said in December.

The government spent 265 billion rubles on all four projects last year. State spending on construction is increasing this year as the government tries to stimulate the economy.

Even so, the national projects lost much of their luster after helping Medvedev win the presidency last March. The national projects committee met just four times last year, compared to 11 times the year before.

Medvedev enjoyed wide media coverage as the first deputy prime minister in charge of the "priority" projects on his frequent tours around the country in the run-up to the presidential elections.

"It was a very convenient and legal way to get an early start for what turned out to be the effective campaign for the main candidate," said Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "They needed a special agency to get that jump-started."
Medvedev says personnel reserve should not become Soviet-style

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13658510&PageNum=0

MOSCOW, March 9 (Itar-Tass) -- President Dmitry Medvedev said the presidential personnel reserve was not a list of favourites.

He warned the top 100 managers from the presidential reserve against turning into what used to be a personnel division of the Soviet Community Party.

“It is important not to spoil the beginning and not to turn into a personnel division of the Soviet Communist Party,” Medvedev said. “It is hard, of course, but it can be done because the traditions of personnel reserves are largely based on ancient approaches. I know that because I worked in the presidential administration for eight years.”

According to Medvedev, the presidential reserve should not be regarded as some sort of a jamboree or as a list of people who are personally close to the president or the ruling party. “It’s not a list of favourites,” he said.

“The personnel reserve should be effective in finding modern-minded managers, in other words in building an effective state and society,” the president said.

“It depends on you whether we will succeed or not,” he added.

Medvedev believes that the people included in the personnel reserve are part of the elite. “The word ‘elite’ can be interpreted differently,” he said, adding that in his opinion, the national elite meant “specialists who have solid professional knowledge, who are successful in life and who are capable of solving various tasks effectively for the state, business and society.”

“The elite cannot develop and grow while being scattered around,” the president said, adding that the people from the personnel reserve should “communicate with each other”.

“You need to get to know each other inside out, you need places where like-minded and successful people can look at each other, hear each other and exchange views. Creating conditions for such communication both at the federal and regional levels should be useful for the personnel reserve. The better you know each other, the more such communication will help build the national elite,” the president said.

At the same time, Medvedev he was against making such meetings with representatives of the administrative reserve regular and turning them into “a ritual game”.

He believes it would be more reasonable for the “reservists” to maintain contact among themselves.

“Meeting with members of the reserve is the right thing to do of course, but it would be better if I met with you, at least with most of you, when you are appointed to new posts because meeting with the reserve is not a ritual game,” he said.

State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev, who was included in the top 100 candidates, suggested making such meetings regular during the first contact between the “reservists” and the president.

However, Medvedev chose to select the initiative put forth by the president of the Russian Economic School, Sergei Guriyev, who suggested organising regular meetings and communication among the members of the administrative reserve.

In his opinion, they could discuss Russian and global economic trends and meet with young people in order to show “how much one can achieve in Russia today”.

“I fully support your idea of communication among the public opinion leaders, among those who have been included in different reserves. That would be mutually beneficial and, I think, important,” Medvedev said.

Vice Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin said the government was creating a federal personnel portal. It will include the presidential reserve and the government’s reserve. And “if a person thinks he can offer himself for inclusion in the federal personnel reserve, he should be allowed to do so,” Sobyanin said.

He also said that the Academy of the National Economy was drafting programmes for the training of top officials.

Rally against disbandment of Russian GRU 67th Separate special-task brigade held in Siberian city

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1774

09.03.2009

In Berdsk, satellite-city of Russia’s Novosibirsk, a protest rally was held today against disbandment of the 67th Separate special-task brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, radio Ekho Moskvy reports.
Almost one thousand people gathered in the central square of the city demanding cancellation of the decision on disbandment of the GRU special-task brigade, and also dismissal of the Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov. Among the participants of the rally there were also the servicemen of the special-task troops brigade, despite of an interdiction of the leadership, news agency TASS-Siberia reports. According to the local law enforcement bodies, the number of protesters was much less, about three hundred people, radio adds.
The protest rally was held by the local committee of the Communist party of Russia, online paper NEWSru reports. Organizers say more than 700 people have gathered in the rally, among them several officers of the GRU special-task brigade of army unit No64655 and their spouses.
About 1,000 people signed an appeal to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, according to local newspaper Kuryer.Sreda. The resolution of meeting includes three main requirements, to stop army reform, to reconsider the decision regarding disbandment of the GRU special-task brigade and to dismiss the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation Anatoly Serdyukova. The resolution and the appeal of local residents in support of the militaries is to be conveyed to the Russian President by the member of Russian parliament from Novosibirsk area Anatoly Lokot, the paper notes.
Putin Unveils Investment

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1009/42/375165.htm

10 March 2009

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a government meeting in St. Petersburg that state would invest a total of 1.1 trillion rubles ($30.9 billion) this year, including 800 billion rubles on construction and 300 billion rubles on high-tech industries.
Among the spending will be 243 billion rubles to maintain Russia's roads, up from 224 billion rubles last year, he said, according to a transcript on the government web site. In addition to the direct state spending on high-tech spheres, state development bank VEB has another 300 billion rubles for the sector, while other lenders receiving state support will provide some 200 billion rubles, Putin said.(MT)