Novaya Gazeta: "New agency dedicated to medium business"
Addressing a regional conference of the United Russia party in Volgograd, Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the National Popular Front and the Strategic Initiatives Agency, a new platform for promoting topical and up-to-date projects and assisting the medium business.
Andrei Belousov, director of the government's Department of Economics and Finance, said that medium businesses, the driving force behind the Russian economy, have been kept in isolation from government departments. It appears that this situation will soon change with the introduction of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, which prioritises direct communication between the business community and the prime minister.
While the official presentation ceremony was still in full swing, Vladimir Putin became head of the agency's supervisory council, its main collective policy-making body. The council will also comprise regional leaders, representatives of public business associations and the Minister of Economic Development. Council members will also join a contest commission, due to establish the agency's expert council and to appoint its top managers this summer.
Any university graduate aged 25-45 may apply for the post of agency directorship on its website. Those who don't get this position will receive other jobs with the agency's regional divisions.
The agency prioritises the support of medium business with the help of Vladimir Putin's administrative, political, and, in part, financial resources. It will keep tabs on important projects, expose barriers and restrictions, and eliminate them on a case-by-case basis. This implies the "manual" management of bureaucratic affairs. There are no plans to eliminate barriers as such, and, in fact, being able to address them at all is a privileged option for those directly communicating with the prime minister.
Addressing the presentation ceremony, Vladimir Putin explained that the agency's creation is not politically motivated and that it should not be compared with the Skolkovo project. Yaroslav Kuzminov, rector of the Higher School of Economics, agrees with the prime minister and believes that the creation of the agency is not timed to coincide with the 2012 presidential elections because the entire system will start yielding results only by 2015, that is, a year before the following presidential elections. The Skolkovo innovation hub is an entirely different elite project, stipulating the creation of a special economic zone. It is also a resource-consuming model, not part of the entire system.
According to Belousov, the Strategic Initiaitives Agency expects to receive 100-200 billion roubles' worth of business investment and charitable donations annually, in place of federal funding.
That is, the Strategic Initiatives Agency is also a resource-consuming model. But is it an election campaign? It may be not, but only if Vladimir Putin will not run in 2012.
Darya Kobylkina
