Q.: How can you comment on the recent shakeups in the regional administration’s personnel?
A.: It is a purposeful change of the team that has taken place - which is an absolutely normal process.
A new leader and an old team are an oxymoron, especially in politics. A good number of vice governors had by the time of [new Governor] Kondratiev’s arrival stayed really too long in the regional administration, and it is quite logical that some of them are now working together with (ex-Governor, now Minister of Agriculture Aleksandr) Tkachev at the federal level.
The new vice governors are much younger - but at the same time they have got certain experience; many of them had worked in the region for a long time in the past.
Q.: Is it a mere coincidence that soon after the appointment of the new governor, a number of notorious criminal proceedings were initiated against a group of vice governors, rayon and department heads?
A.: I wouldn’t say that there’s some direct link between the two events. The cases you mentioned are being led by federal law enforcement officials, and as I understand it, they had been initiated well before Kondratiev was appointed Governor.
It may have been that a convenient moment was chosen for the announcement of the cases - when the system of regional authorities was being reshaped, so that the losses became not fatal.
Q.: Why do the regional leaders need a strong team of their supporters in the State Duma? It had never been a real issue in the past.
A.: This is a correct approach from strategic viewpoint. Although the demand for money is rising, the amount of available money is becoming less - so the regions will find it more and more difficult to get it. So it’s logical that the regional authorities need to have somebody who will be ‘wringing out’ money for their respective municipalities.
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