Over the past few years, Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has been enriched with several new favorites who were drawn to him thanks to their regular working contacts with the president. These people constantly come up with new projects, actively promote themselves and do not forget to demonstrate to Putin their professionalism. All this not only distinguishes them from the veterans in the presidential entourage, but also works to strengthen the vertical of power.
Putin likes these efforts – he adds them to the piggy bank of his merits for Russia. So much so that the new favorites are gradually displacing the old favorites from Putin’s St. Petersburg acquaintances. “St. Petersburg” have acquired posts and resources not through professionalism, but simply by virtue of personal connections. They protect, not create, and owe everything personally to the president. The new office favorites have made it into the close circle primarily due to their efforts. They are becoming the new drivers of the regime, not recipients of aid from the system that Putin has built. Sooner or later, the new favorites will ask the system for a reward for their services, which it will not be able to give them.
Putin’s guards
Personalist regimes open wide space for favoritism. At some point, the ruler begins to elevate people close to him to important positions and allocate resources in their favor. In Putin’s case, this moment came very quickly – his acquaintances from the Ozero cooperative and former colleagues from the St. Petersburg City Hall quickly occupied key positions in the Russian hierarchy and gained access to financial and raw material resources.
In 2001, former Smolny employee Alexey Miller became the head of Gazprom. Igor Sechin, Putin’s subordinate at St. Petersburg City Hall, became deputy head of the presidential administration in 1999; in 2004 he was appointed chairman of the board of directors of “Rosneft”, held the position of deputy prime minister for energy affairs, and then returned to “Rosneft” already as its head. In 1999, Nikolai Patrushev, another former colleague of Putin’s, this time from the KGB, became head of the FSB. Key assets and resources have been diverted into the hands of businessmen close to the president: the Kovalchuk brothers, the Rotenberg brothers and oil trader Gennady Timchenko.
Enumerating the officials and businessmen of “Petersburg” origin would take a long time. At the time, Putin’s philosophy of favoritism was simple: he gave power and resources to people he had known and trusted for a long time. Professionalism was not so important to Putin. The aforementioned Igor Sechin had nothing to do with energy and oil production, and the former Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov had nothing to do with the army.
This does not mean that there were no professionals around Putin. They work in the system, but in bureaucratic-technocratic positions that require experience but do not bring particular personal benefits. Favored positions are more often given to favorites or to favorites of favorites.
In the middle of the first decade of the new century, the “Peterians” were joined by representatives of the “court”. The former security guards went on to work as deputy ministers in the power ministries and then as governors. Anton Vaino, Putin’s chief of protocol and effectively his personal valet, became head of the presidential administration.
But the philosophy remained the same – personal closeness, familiarity and trust. Such favorites can be called “guardians” of Putin, who control a certain resource or sphere of work for him. In this approach, development is not so important, especially since in its heyday profits were generated by energy prices. The state treasury and the shadow budget of the president and his entourage were filled primarily thanks to the conditions of the world market, and not to the professionalism of officials and state managers.
Favorites by service
This pattern of favoritism is now rapidly changing. “St. Petersburg” retain control of resources and continue to occupy many key positions, but another formation of favorites is hot on their heels. It can be characterized as follows: these are people with project-oriented thinking, usually professionals. Work experience begins to play a key role in their careers, and one of the main advantages is a project that Putin likes and that the new favorite has already tried in a narrower field of work.
The first hero of this type appeared on Putin’s list quite a long time ago – in 2005. At that time, the presidential administration was headed by Tyumen governor Sergei Sobyanin. An experienced bureaucrat who made his career first at the regional and then at the federal level – as the chairman of the Assembly of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District, Sobyanin was a member of the Federation Council in the 1990s and headed the commission on local self-government there.
In the Tyumen region, Sobyanin led the reform for the integration of municipalities in the vertical of power – the elected mayors were replaced by appointed city managers. Democracy and publicity at the local level became less, but the center gained control and order. This reform in a separate area became a project for Sobyanin’s career growth.
At that time, however, Sobyanin’s career was rather an exception that confirmed the general laws of Putin’s favoritism. Personal proximity and trust were paramount, and the rest was just a nice bonus.
The new favorites are working on Sobyanin’s model, as well as Sobyanin himself, who has not yet lost Putin’s favor. He became the mayor of Moscow and is trying to turn the capital into a developed metropolis, although more of an Asian type – with modern transport, skyscrapers, developed services, but without civil society and neighborhood communities. The parks and cultural events give it a European shine.
Sobyanin has long understood how to interest the president. For example, now the mayor of Moscow sees that Putin is interested in modern transport, so he shows the president what he wants to see – new roads, electric trains and river trams. Thus, Sobyanin increased the duration and intensity of his contacts with Putin and received public praise from the president.
Marat Husnulin, Sobyanin’s former deputy for construction and now federal deputy prime minister for the same sector, is following the same path. He regularly presents Putin with infrastructure projects, and the president likes it – Putin gets the illusion that Russia is developing rapidly despite the sanctions.
Another project generator is the first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergey Kiriyenko. Together with his subordinates, he organized competitions for personnel, trained officials, and recently also students in the framework of a new course called “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood”. His grandiose first-person entertainment machine consists of many elements: a bunch of youth forums for every taste, a revival of the “Knowledge” society, a new pioneering organization called “Movement of the First”. The latest example of Kiriyenko’s project management is the spectacular Russia exhibition, the main event of Putin’s election campaign.
Yury Trutnev, plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern region, has his own project for the president. His aide Maxim Oreshkin constantly presents Putin with reports with proposals. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is selling Putin a modern, digital government that is fighting sanctions (and before that it was fighting covid). More and more often, the president pays attention to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernishenko – the latter is responsible for digitalization and sports. The employee organizes sports forums for Putin and presents IT projects.
Such pets can be called “creators” as opposed to “guardians”. They don’t keep what they already have, but build something new on top of it, even if sometimes that new thing is just a pretty decoration. In any case, their initiatives give the president the illusion that they are working in favor of his regime.
Such pets can be called “creators” rather than “guardians”. They don’t keep what they already have, but build something new on top of it, even if sometimes that new thing is just a pretty decoration. In any case, their initiatives give the president the illusion that they are working in favor of his regime.
Regular working contacts automatically lead to the emergence of new favorites in Putin’s inner circle. After all, in the Russian vertical, the possibility of personal contact with the president is an extremely valuable resource, and its possession sharply increases the elite weight of its bearer.
Putin’s new favorites are doing their best to increase the number of reasons to meet with the president. For this purpose, it is necessary to maintain constant interest in the projects and increase their number, i.e. to at least work as imitators. Most likely, the “project” favorites take into account the unsuccessful experience of the Speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin. His career took off when, in 2011, he proposed to Putin the project of the All-Russian People’s Front. But soon the president lost interest in ONF, and there were no new projects from Volodin, so his career growth stopped.
The experienced Russian courtier Sergei Shoigu also mastered the new rules quite well. During the first months of the war, he seemed to have fallen out of favor. But Shoigu adapted quickly and is now selling Putin the project “the Russian army can confidently oppose the Ukrainian counteroffensive and Western equipment”. The success of his sale can be seen in how often the president talks about burning “leopards” in his speeches. So Shoigu was able to fit into the new formation of the favorites.
Donors, not recipients
The pattern of favoritism under Putin changed for several reasons. A bored old autocrat needs to be entertained; his career-minded subordinates realize this and work successfully in this direction.
Over the years, objects, events and structures that appeared under Putin and should remain in the country’s life become important to him. Ambitious managers are ready to help him in this, presenting new projects to the president.
After all, “Peter’s” favorites and representatives of the “court” consider closeness to the body as something given once and for all. And the favorites from the new formation understand that they have to earn this proximity and are making efforts for it. Putin undoubtedly sees and understands this.
The president demands activity from senior management. It can be demonstrated mostly by the new formation of the favorites, and not by the tired “Peterian” aristocracy.
It seems that such “job favorites” are a big asset for Putin and his regime. However, this impression is deceptive. The old “guardian” favorites owe their rise to the top spot to Putin, and their own role in this is minimal. The President has given them everything, and they return him only faithful service as guards to the best of their ability.
The favorites-“creators” owe their rise to Putin only half, the share of their own merits is no less. They often give more to the president and the vertical than it gives back.
They build, they defy sanctions, they create the illusion of holidays. The new favorites are slowly conquering the resources – attracting funding for their projects, getting friendly companies to implement them, achieving the appointment of their own governors.
Their appetites will grow – after all, they are donors to the regime, not its recipients. A simple example: “Rosneft” will survive well even without the wise management of Sechin, but if an experienced manager with his own “project” comes to head the company, there is no doubt that it will become more efficient.
However, Putin and the old “St. Petersburg” elite are unlikely to be ready to meet the demands of the new favorites. Open discontent, sabotage or even the front of “favorites in the office” seem like a very real scenario.
Active bureaucrats perfectly understand that they can live without Putin and his vertical. And the personalist regime will hardly survive without them, if it survives at all. Their personal projects and initiatives, which have already helped them find their way into Putin’s heart, are also a good foundation for the future. Naturally, a future without Putin.
2023-11-25 16:22:06
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