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WHAT WILL APPOINTED GOVERNORS BE LIKE?

MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - On Friday, the State Duma will consider in the first reading a bill that changes the procedure for electing regional governors (they will be appointed by local legislatures after the Russian president suggests his candidates). At a roundtable titled "New Political Reality," political experts tried to decide what appointed governors would be like, Vremya Novostei writes.

Konstantin Simonov, director of the Political Environment Center, believes that "regional heads will have to become professional managers," as "the project of economic modernization Putin announced during the 2004 election campaign needs efficient management mechanisms."

"The economic recovery of the regions is impossible without serious anti-crisis moves," an expert pointed out. However, Pavel Kochanov, a leading analyst with the Standard & Poor's rating agency, doubts that the president's scheme for appointing governors will solve the problem. "Appointed regional heads will be officials, not city managers," he said. "The system being built, what we call the vertical of power, is not a friendly environment for managers, people who are used to taking responsibility for important decisions."

Vyacheslav Glazychev, head of the Strategic Studies Center in the Volga Federal District defined a perfect governor as "the head of an office," a person who ensures a good climate in the region for solving economic problems. Managing the economy is not a governor's task, although in recent years regional governors have been engaged in it.

Maksim Dianov, the head of the Regional Problems Institute, suggested that regional governors would most probably "solve organizational issues and appoint personnel in the region." At least, this is how local elites will perceive them. Experts believe that lobbyists of regional interests in the federal center will make the most successful politicians.