Putin Disbands Three Presidential Councils He Created to Promote Innovation

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 20 – In yet another indication that Vladimir Putin is retreating from his brief flirtation with modernization in 2012, the Kremlin leader yesterday disbanded three presidential councils – for economic modernization and innovative development, for the development of the financial market and for monitoring socio-economic development.

            These councils have little real power, but they do bring into the orbit of the Presidential Administration people and ideas from the academic world who might otherwise find it difficult if not impossible to reach Putin. Killing them is thus a step backwards from any commitment to real modernization (politsovet.ru/59655-putin-likvidiroval-sovet-po-innovaciyam-i-modernizacii.html).

            That is all the more so now when Putin and his government have been sending out signals that they really are prepared to try to move forward by identifying innovative ideas and ensuring that the center really knows which ones work and which don’t by a careful and continuing monitoring of the Russian population.