Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 21 – Moscow has disbanded
two of the agencies it created to integrate occupied Crimea – the Ministry for
Crimean Affairs and the Commission for the Social-Economic Development of the
Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol – but in its place, it has decided to
dispatch Russian officials as new “commissars” to run the place.
On the one hand, this step is an indication
of the Russian government’s unhappiness with the pace of the transformation of
Crimea since the Anschluss. But on the other, it almost certainly will generate
anger even among those in Crimea who accept Moscow’s rule as a denigration of
their status and authority.
“Kommersant” reports today that the
Russian government “intends to strengthen the cadres composition of the organs
of executive power” in Crimea and that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has
already directed federal agencies to come up with lists of senior officials who
can be assigned there as deputies to the heads of departments on the peninsula.
According to the Moscow paper, those
who go there will be guaranteed an analogous position on their return to the
Russian capital; and the experts with whom its journalists spoke say that those
who go “can expect to be promoted” (kommersant.ru/doc/2772571
and qha.com.ua/v-rossii-nabirayut-chinovnikov-dlya-upravleniya-krimom-smi-146382.html).
The
paper says that the Russian government has been thinking about such a move
since the spring, and one of its sources says that on July 1, Kozak disseminated
his directive. At that time, he called for the various government agencies to
come up with a list of candidates by July 9 to serve as “first deputy heads of
the organs of executive power” in Crimea and Sevastopol.”
“The
main requirement for candidates is that they must be state employees of the
federal level,” the source said. “Regional bureaucrats also can be included but
only with the agreement of higher officials in the subjects of the Russian
Federation.”
He added that what this in fact represents is “the
revival of the institution of commissars” like those Moscow dispatched in
Soviet times to ensure its will was carried out in the regions.
Kozak’s office did not confirm this
report, “Kommersant” says. But several other officials did, with some saying
the lists had already been prepared and others indicating that they were in the
process of being compiled. What is unclear is who will want to go and who will
resist, the sources say.
Some ministries undoubtedly will use
this opportunity to dispense with officials they would like to replace while
others will see it as a means to expanding their reach into Crimea and
Sebastopol and thus send some of their most talented people there. And some may
try to have their officials take on this new job while continuing to do their
old one, especially at a time of budgetary stringency.
Nikolay Klish, the director of the
Moscow Institute of Government and Municipal Administration of the Higher
School of Economics, told “Kommersant” that the shift from a regional ministry to
commissars was entirely appropriate. Officials no longer have to address “general
questions” but rather highly specific ones.
The new pattern of federal
representation in Crimea, he continued, will give Moscow “more influence over
local elites.” And he added, “to a large
extent, this is analogous to the way in which the authorities have behaved
regarding the situation in the North Caucasus.”
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