Moscow Sets Up ‘Mayors’ School’ Modeled on Russian Governors’ School

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 10 – In Soviet times, the communist government established party schools to train rising politicians to take over various levels of the party and state bureaucracy. They were organized in a hierarchy with some intended to produce new generations of officials at the local and regional level and others at the all-Soviet one.

            The Putin regime is doing something similar. Its school for governors has attracted a great deal of attention (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-than-half-of-heads-of-russian.bhtml, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/05/putins-governors-school-playing.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/in-past-kremlins-governors-school-didnt.html).

            But lower-level schools for future mayors and subordinate officials have not, although the graduates of these lower-ranking institutions are likely to be the source of more senior officials later as well as representing an important means for Moscow to control governors in the meantime.

            Schools for governors are now in their second year, and they are having an increasing impact on the selection of new mayors across the Russian Federation. The second-year program in which 160 are enrolled consists of 500 hours of classroom instruction as well as visits to various city governments (ng.ru/telegram/2024-10-10/100_telegram101024.html).