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With the new Cabinet revealed earlier this week, a number of controversial and unpopular ex-ministers have moved to President Vladimir Putin's administration, spurring speculation that the center of decision-making has moved to the Kremlin.

file photoEx-Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has become deputy head of the influential Security Council, while ex-Transportation Minister Igor Levitin was appointed a presidential adviser. Ex-Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, ex-Ecology Minister Yury Trutnev and ex-Communications minister Igor Shchyogolev also landed adviser roles to Putin, as did ex-Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova and ex-Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko.

Some ministers may gain more authority, such as Nabiullina, who will become an adviser on economic policy. Trutnev will be in charge of the State Council, while Nurgaliyev will most likely deal with the North Caucasus, Interfax reported.

"I can't say Nurgaliev's been ousted from the Cabinet ­ his loyalty and endurance have been appreciated and his new position as deputy secretary of the Security Council was exactly created for him," said Leonid Polyakov, a political scientist at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

Meanwhile, Golikova will be in charge of overseeing socio-economic development in Russia's "semiprotectorate" republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Schyogolev will have a similar role in information technologies, while Fursenko will oversee grants for the scientific community, Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Wednesday.

Yevgeny Shkolov, an ex-Deputy Interior Minister and current head of the board of Uralvagonzavod, where workers offered to help riot police suppress protest rallies, has been made responsible for staff issues in the Kremlin.

Some ex-ministers have nominally left the government, but still remain key political figures, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who will now head Rosneft.

'Shadow government'

Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said there would now be two governments: a real one and a shadow one.

"The fact that the majority of former ministers, such as Fursenko, Golikova, Nabiullina, Shchyogolev and others, moved to work for the Kremlin as presidential aides means only one thing, I think: That the real government will work there, and the new government headed by Dmitry Medvedev will be formally official, but it will be a double of the Kremlin's Cabinet," Zyuganov said, Interfax reported.

The new advisers are expected to carry out Putin's six-year agenda to 2018, outlined in his pre-election articles.

Six-year plan

"I would call it Putin's 'shestiletka' [six-year plan, derived from the Soviet term "pyatiletka" for five-year plan], said Polyakov, of the Higher School of Economics. "The Cabinet and the Kremlin administration were formed to achieve these targets, where the latter would become the curators of each sector."

Some experts, however, see Putin's decision to bring his team to the Kremlin as an extension of the manual control in the Russian government, and said that they would merely be protecting Putin's interests against possibly hostile Cabinet initiatives.

"The center of power is moving together with Putin, regardless of the law and instructions written on paper," said political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "When President Medvedev ordered the privatization of state companies, no one did anything, as it went counter to Putin's agenda, who wanted to have more officials in state companies."

Peskov has rejected criticism about the increased number of presidential aides, saying there only three new positions had been created, and he dismissed speculation about power shifts to the Kremlin.

Criticism rejected

"Speculation that the decisionmaking center is moving to the [presidential] administration and that former ministers will retain their authority is wrong in form and content," Peskov said, RIA Novosti reported.

Three out of every four ministers in Medvedev's Cabinet are new, with many younger than their predecessors, leading to jokes about the new government being comprised of "Medvedev's youth team" or "interns," but officials reject this tag.

"The government has become younger and this trend will continue," said Yuri Kotler, head of staff development at the Cabinet's new Open Government project. "Seven people have come to the cabinet from the Open Government project, but I wouldn't say any of these ministers is immature. It's also interesting to see who these ministers will bring with them, so in general I think the new Cabinet will very efficient and dynamic."

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russian News - Russia

With the new Cabinet revealed earlier this week, a number of controversial and unpopular ex-ministers have moved to President Vladimir Putin's administration, spurring speculation that the center of decision-making has moved to the Kremlin.

file photoEx-Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has become deputy head of the influential Security Council, while ex-Transportation Minister Igor Levitin was appointed a presidential adviser. Ex-Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, ex-Ecology Minister Yury Trutnev and ex-Communications minister Igor Shchyogolev also landed adviser roles to Putin, as did ex-Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova and ex-Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko.

Some ministers may gain more authority, such as Nabiullina, who will become an adviser on economic policy. Trutnev will be in charge of the State Council, while Nurgaliyev will most likely deal with the North Caucasus, Interfax reported.

"I can't say Nurgaliev's been ousted from the Cabinet ­ his loyalty and endurance have been appreciated and his new position as deputy secretary of the Security Council was exactly created for him," said Leonid Polyakov, a political scientist at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

Meanwhile, Golikova will be in charge of overseeing socio-economic development in Russia's "semiprotectorate" republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Schyogolev will have a similar role in information technologies, while Fursenko will oversee grants for the scientific community, Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Wednesday.

Yevgeny Shkolov, an ex-Deputy Interior Minister and current head of the board of Uralvagonzavod, where workers offered to help riot police suppress protest rallies, has been made responsible for staff issues in the Kremlin.

Some ex-ministers have nominally left the government, but still remain key political figures, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who will now head Rosneft.

'Shadow government'

Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said there would now be two governments: a real one and a shadow one.

"The fact that the majority of former ministers, such as Fursenko, Golikova, Nabiullina, Shchyogolev and others, moved to work for the Kremlin as presidential aides means only one thing, I think: That the real government will work there, and the new government headed by Dmitry Medvedev will be formally official, but it will be a double of the Kremlin's Cabinet," Zyuganov said, Interfax reported.

The new advisers are expected to carry out Putin's six-year agenda to 2018, outlined in his pre-election articles.

Six-year plan

"I would call it Putin's 'shestiletka' [six-year plan, derived from the Soviet term "pyatiletka" for five-year plan], said Polyakov, of the Higher School of Economics. "The Cabinet and the Kremlin administration were formed to achieve these targets, where the latter would become the curators of each sector."

Some experts, however, see Putin's decision to bring his team to the Kremlin as an extension of the manual control in the Russian government, and said that they would merely be protecting Putin's interests against possibly hostile Cabinet initiatives.

"The center of power is moving together with Putin, regardless of the law and instructions written on paper," said political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "When President Medvedev ordered the privatization of state companies, no one did anything, as it went counter to Putin's agenda, who wanted to have more officials in state companies."

Peskov has rejected criticism about the increased number of presidential aides, saying there only three new positions had been created, and he dismissed speculation about power shifts to the Kremlin.

Criticism rejected

"Speculation that the decisionmaking center is moving to the [presidential] administration and that former ministers will retain their authority is wrong in form and content," Peskov said, RIA Novosti reported.

Three out of every four ministers in Medvedev's Cabinet are new, with many younger than their predecessors, leading to jokes about the new government being comprised of "Medvedev's youth team" or "interns," but officials reject this tag.

"The government has become younger and this trend will continue," said Yuri Kotler, head of staff development at the Cabinet's new Open Government project. "Seven people have come to the cabinet from the Open Government project, but I wouldn't say any of these ministers is immature. It's also interesting to see who these ministers will bring with them, so in general I think the new Cabinet will very efficient and dynamic."

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