MOSCOW, May 21 (Itar-Tass) — The new Russian government is a team of professionals that are open to new initiatives, Deputy Secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia Sergei Zheleznyak has thus assessed the RF Cabinet.
According to him, the United Russia party members have got sufficiently broad representation in the government, but in this case it is not the main thing. “Maybe in advance, I would call it (the government) a team of professionals,” he told Itar-Tass. “Given the fact that the Cabinet has been significantly renewed, the main preference is given to the people who have a significant management experience, and people who are widely known for their ideas and undertakings.”
The representative of the party leadership particularly noted Vladimir Medina who was appointed Minister of Culture. “He is my friend, our colleague in the Duma, he is a very interesting, creative person, a serious historian, and a successful legislator who headed in the previous State Duma the Committee for Culture,” he recalled.
United Russia members very well know the managerial capacity of Nikolai Nikiforov who has been appointed to the post of Minister of Communications and Mass Media (earlier - Minister of Information and Communication of the Republic of Tatarstan). “We have always pointed to the highest level of development of information technologies in Tatarstan, including in terms of governance. And many of the ideas that have been implemented in Tatarstan have yet to be implemented at the state level,” Zheleznyak said.
The politician believes that the appointment to the post of Minister of Agriculture of Nikolai Fyodorov, who headed the institution that was preparing the election program for United Russia and for the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF) was not accidental. “Talking about agriculture, Nikolai Fyodorov, when he headed Chuvashia, managed to significantly improve the situation in the region, although there were no oil and gas opportunities in the region. And later, working on the formation of the people’s initiatives, he also took a very effective approach to this,” said Zheleznyak. He expressed confidence that the country’s “agriculture has got a reliable ally” represented by Fyodorov.
The United Russia leadership representative also noted Vladimir Kolokoltsev as one of the most respected and influential persons in the law enforcement community. “I think that people of different political views can confirm that he is a professional of the highest standard,” he said.
RF First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, as well as Deputy Prime Ministers Dmitry Rogozin and Vladislav Surkov, according to Zheleznyak, “are also known primarily for their professional attitude to work.” However, in the view of the politician, this can be said not about all the members of the new Cabinet.
At the same time the government has become seriously younger. “I’ve tried to calculate the average age. I think it has significantly decreased. And this is a symbol of the time in many ways,” said Zheleznyak.
“This government must be modern, interactive, open to initiatives coming from the regions, and also in terms of the information policy, and in terms of the use of the latest scientific and technical achievements,” he said. Moreover, Zheleznyak added, “this government will yet set an example both to our colleagues in the regions and our neighbours from other countries.”
It is not accidentally, according to him, that the post of Minister for Relations with the Open Government, to which Mikhail Abyzov has been appointed, has appeared in the government. “This is an indicator of the government’s willingness to conduct a dialogue with the society,” Zheleznyak said.
As for the partisanship of the Cabinet members, the United Russia leadership so far does not know the exact number of members of parties. “I’ve tried to figure out the partisanship - we also have a broad party representation. Among the government members there are many members of our party,” the deputy secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia said, noting that many Cabinet members are well-known, for example, Nikolai Fyodorov is associated also with the ONF. “I think we’ll see at the government level a sufficient number of the public opinion leaders, professionals, including young professionals, the talent and energy of which will be in demand in the work for the country’s benefit,” the representative of the United Russia leadership concluded.