Alexei Kudrin, finance minister and newly appointed deputy prime minister, will be the one who knows the government’s new structure best.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Viktor Zubkov Makes Officials Fly
// The prime minister continued distributing travel orders
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who began his rule over the new Cabinet of Ministers by checking the readiness for winter, continued the practice of geographically moving the officials all over Russia. Yakutia’s Prime Minister Egor Borisov received orders to hastily arrive to Moscow. Meanwhile, member of the government staff Anton Drozdov, sent to the Sakhalin island, became the government’s evil genius: his hasty departure prevents Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin from moving into his new office.
Anton Drozdov, head of the financial department at the government staff, was the first official to feel Viktor Zubkov’s governance method. Drozdov departed to the Sakhalin island on Tuesday. The prime minister sent the official there at the government’s last session, to correct the failure in delivering financial aid for the island that suffered an earthquake in August. Unintentionally, Drozdov once again interfered with the Zubkov government’s fine tuning. While he was flying from Moscow to Sakhalin, the government decided to pass his office over to Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister, newly appointed deputy prime minister. Yet, Kudrin could not move into the office, because of Drozdov’s personal belongings there. So, Kudrin will be unable to thoroughly get down to work until Drozdov’s return. Meanwhile, Drozdov’s duty trip will not be over until all funds for post-earthquake aid come from Alexei Kudrin’s ministry to the Sakhalin region. Upon returning, Drozdov will move to Dmitry Kozak’s office. So far, the government cannot say what shall come out of it.
At the telephone conference with governors of Russia’s northern regions on Tuesday, devoted to preparing public utilities services for winter, Viktor Zubkov continued the practice of moving the officials to Russia’s remote locations. The conference was also attended by new Deputy PM Alexei Kudrin, new Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, and Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. However, it was beyond Zubkov’s power to budge ‘veterans’ (Shoigu swore lately that he had survived the Cabinet’s 20th resignation).
One more Zubkov’s huff was caused by the report of Yakutia’s PM Egor Borisov, who demanded 1.8 billion rubles for reconstructing the houses damaged by flood. Borisov said the federal center had already promised that money to Yakutia. Zubkov tried resorting to the already-tested tactics. “Sergei Kuzhugetovich, shall we send money or officials?!” the PM asked Shoigu. However, Shoigu, bearing in mind Drozdov’s fate, refused pointblank to fly to Yakutia. “Neither money, nor officials!” the minister retorted.
Answering to Borisov, Shoigu said: “I would ask you not to mislead the prime minister! Yakutia’s situation is municipal; it did not reach the federal level. Yakutia’s reserve fund had 85 million rubles; 62 million are left. That sum can be spent on flood relief.” However, Zubkov was obviously unsatisfied with the officials’ staying where they are. “You should arrive here tomorrow with the documents!” he sentenced Borisov.
The next official who received the PM’s order to leave office room was Alexander Khloponin, governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. “Out of ten regions, yours is least prepared for winter: your heating network is just 86.6-percent ready,” Zubkov charged the governor. Khloponin tried offering an excuse that the PM uses old data, while in fact the readiness has already reached 93 percent. Yet, Zubkov asked an uncomfortable question: “When did you visit Evenkia last time?” “In-n-n April,” stammered the governor. “Check it more attentively there,” snapped the PM and set the deadline until September 27. “Call me on Thursday after the government’s session, around 4 p.m., and report to me how many unrepaired heating networks there are!” ordered Zubkov.
After that, governors assured in chorus the PM that they have no difficulties with preparation for winter. The only exception was Murmansk Governor Yuri Evdokimov, who demanded solving the long-known issue of misbalance between market and regulation: fuel-oil prices are often higher than expected, and the restrictions on the energy tariffs’ growth deprive energy companies of their profits. However, that demand led to nothing. Federal Tariff Service head Sergei Novikov said that the government should not go back to the issue of fuel-oil prices’ state regulation, and recommended solving the difficulty by the regions’ own incomes, which are growing faster than planned.
Nevertheless, Zubkov still remained unsatisfied with the quality of preparation for winter. “We cannot now say that readiness for winter is satisfactory,” he said, referring to the statistic data lying in front of him. Then the PM pronounced sentence: “Now the procedure will be as follows: we adopt a resolution and appoint a person to control its implementation.” The control over the implementation of the protocol on Kamchatka is the duty of First Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov. He might have to fly there soon. Zubkov himself does not reject duty trips. He is to fly from Moscow to the Penza region on Wednesday, to check the situation there.
Petr Netreba
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 26, 2007
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