The party's cadre is ready to merge with that of the President
A congress of the members of the United Russia cadre reserve took place in Oryol on Saturday. On behalf of the head of the party's Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov, the first two hundred letters of recommendation were handed to those who, in the party's opinion, were high-level professionals and strong state supporters. The party will soon make a short list of the top 300 managers who have a chance to make it to the presidential personnel pool. Kommersant has learned the names of some of them.
A congress of the members of the United Russia cadre reserve took place in the Oryol Region. 60 persons from eight regions in the Central Federal District were given letters of recommendation signed by Boris Gryzlov (the total number of recommendations in the federal district is more than 200). The letters say that the holders are professionals and recommend potential employers to refer to the United Russia "Cadre Project" directorate for further information.
After interviews with the party's recruiting officers certificates were issued to the head of the Strogino municipality in Moscow, Alexander Prisyazhnenko; vice president of OAO Lada Service Leonid Kachalov; the head of DNL-Finance company Alexei Rosfeldt; the owner of the Tula Leo Tolstoy Printing Press, Mikhail Pavlov; the chief editor of the Oryol newspaper Rodnye Prostory, Yekaterina Glazkova, and the deputies of the Yaroslavl regional Duma, Vladimir Denisok and Alexei Kuchmenko. Some of them may be invited to a meeting with the party's chairman Vladimir Putin which is on his schedule, though as yet without a fixed date.
Similar congresses will shortly take place in the Volga and Urals Federal Districts. The recipients have yet to find out whether the recommendations are of any practical use. For the time being they are trying to do something for the party of their own accord. In some regions they have come to Vladimir Putin's Public Reception Offices offering to receive callers and investigate into complaints and carry out investigative journalism assignments. In the Ivanovo Region the members of the cadre reserve intend to engage in anti-crisis management at the municipal level and advise underperforming municipalities on how to improve management.
However, the party's federal leadership will provide more telling examples to prove that a party recommendation paves the way to promotion. According to Kommersant's information, in some regions United Russia is negotiating with the governors to include the members of its reserve in their teams, possibly in the capacity of deputy governor. These regions may include those to which the President made new appointments, for example, the Oryol Region which hosted the Congress and the Voronezh Region, whose new governor is Alexei Gordeyev, the former Agriculture Minister.
The party's panel of experts is shortly to finish selecting from amongst 1,400 reservists a short list of 300 most promising managers. The experts polled by Kommersant say that a large part of the list has already been determined. Among those who made it to the short list are the President of the International Aviation Center (Stavropol Territory) Alexander Begak; the head of a major Siberian farming enterprise Sibirskiye Bychki, Pavel Vagner (Altai Territory); human resources director of the company Wimm-Bill-Dann Ruslan Vesterovsky; Vice President of OAO AvtoVAZ Pavel Voronin; the CEO of the company ALKO-ROSSIYA, Oleg Kalinsky; the Vice President of VTB Kapital, Igor Mankov; the head of the company Taigaprodukt (Irkutsk Region), Alexander Ponomaryov; and the director-general of OOO Yedinaya Pochtovaya Korporatsia, Denis Chuiko.
They are members of the federal pool of experts who have a chance to make it to the 1,000-strong presidential personnel pool. United Russia is planning to propose the names of 300 managers to Dmitry Medvedev to be included in the list.
Vsevolod Inyutin, Irina Nagornykh