The Russian government is currently examining draft regulations for a new Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East that have drummed up much excitement among the experts. The draft effectively proposes taking away the federal authorities’ jurisdiction over the region, and many experts see the draft statute as signalling the possible reform of the entire state administration system. Those reforms would include giving the new ministry broad powers to carry out almost all state administration tasks in the vast Far East region.
But signs indicate that little change will take place. It is unlikely that the new ministry will end up resembling the body proposed in the draft regulations. This is because under the current political system, essentially a “federation of corporations,” it would be impossible in principle to turn the enormous, albeit sparsely populated, Far East region into what practically amounts to an independent state.
It will also not happen because Viktor Ishayev, the head of the new ministry and the presidential plenipotentiary envoy to the Far East Federal District (he had been the governor of Khabarovsk Territory in the Russian Far East for many years), is not the right man for the job of local overseer of more than a third of the country.When the State Council Presidium had more clout, Ishayev, then a member of that body, drafted a national development strategy through to 2010, but the strategy went no further than the draft stage. Now, Ishayev (who also recently became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences) looks ready to scale down his ambitions and try his hand at developing the Far East region alone, rather than the entire country all at once. The result will likely be no different, however.
The decision to establish a new government post responsible for a large region of the country—that is, the job of minister for the development of the Russian Far East, the second such post, after the appointment of Alexander Khloponin as the coordinator of the federal agencies’ work in the North Caucasus—is a strong indication of Moscow’s serious concerns about the situation in the Far East. It reflects those concerns more clearly than any policy shift from sector-based administration to region-based government.
New Khrushchev-era-like “councils of national economy” (region-based agencies created by Khrushchev instead of sector-based ministries) are not likely to emerge. But at the same time, the appointment of an official in charge of the Far East, with ministerial rank, is also unlikely to bring any real improvement to the region.