May 13. Weekly Politics: the New Cabinet is Formed

Last week witnessed a host of political events in the country. Less than a week passed since the inauguration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, while the new Cabinet has already been formed. As was announced, right after Dmitry Medvedev took office he nominated Vladimir Putin to the position of prime minister, and on May 8, 2008 the State Duma gave him the go-ahead at an extraordinary plenary session. As early as May 12, 2008 the lineup of the new Cabinet and new members of the Security Council were disclosed. In reality, the government saw the arrival of eight "newcomers": three vice prime ministers (Igor Shuvalov, former presidential aide, Sergey Sobyanin, who earlier ran the presidential administration, and his former deputy Igor Sechin) and five ministers (former Atomstroyexport chief executive Sergey Smatko took the position of energy minister, ex-head of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko was appointed minister of sports, tourism and youth policy, Igor Shegolev took office as telecommunications minister, the position of minister of culture went to former ambassador of the Russian Federation to France Alexander Avdeyev and former plenipotentiary envoy of the President to the Volga Federal District Alexander Konovalov took the seat of justice minister). Given the new appointments the Security Council also saw the arrival of "freshmen": new head of the presidential administration Sergey Naryshkin and Alexander Bortnikov who replaced Nikolay Patrushev at the helm of the Federal Security Service.

At this point, some initial conclusions can be drawn concerning the Cabinet's reshuffle. In the first place, the record pace at which all these issues were settled signals that the approval of all appointments was carried out long before Medvedev took office and, in all likelihood, agreements were reached on a consensual basis. In fact, these appointments cemented administratively the Medvedev-Putin duo: three key figures from the presidential administration came to the House of Government, while the new presidential administration is to be run by a less "ambitious" (as many observes believe) executive professional Sergey Naryshkin. In other words, the Cabinet shuffle will definitely remove any excess weight of authority that appeared in previous years (and which runs counter to the Russian Constitution) in favor of the presidential administration, which was, as a matter of fact, a certain "shadow government" and will thereby make the decision-making process more "transparent".

In addition, some experts devote special attention to new appointments in the so-called group of siloviki: Nikolay Patrushev's move from the Federal Security Service to the position of Secretary of the Security Council, a much higher profile position. Coupled with the dismissal of justice minister Vladimir Ustinov this decision could point to the aspiration to "weaken" this group. On the contrary, the Putin-led government will have an additional economic ministry: a separate energy ministry was created that could potentially turn into an influential body.

As regards the main tasks faced by the new Cabinet, they were unveiled by Vladimir Putin in his speech to the State Duma: to pursue an efficient social policy, to improve the quality of education, science and culture, to make the national economy more innovative, roll out infrastructure and enhance the productivity of governmental and public bodies. Speaking about the ways and means to make governmental bodies more efficient from the viewpoint of the new government, even now many observers view the present Cabinet as one of the strongest and most ambitious in the post-Soviet era of Russia.