Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 9 November, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin made a number of personnel changes in the government. According to experts, they will become the beginning of the formation of a new configuration of the government and the "shuffling" of the power elites for the forthcoming transit of power in the coming years.

Putin replaced heads of 4 out of 21 ministries: the Ministry of Energy (A. Novak), the Ministry of Natural Resources (D. Kobylkin), the Ministry of Construction (V. Yakushev) and the Ministry of Transport (E. Dietrich). He replaced the plenipotentiary representative of the president in the Urals Federal District N. Tsukanov for Minister of Construction V. Yakushev. A decree was issued to increase the number of deputy prime ministers from nine to 10.

Prime Minister M. Mishustin submitted the indicated candidates to the State Duma. He proposed to appoint the General Director of Aeroflot V. Savelyev as the new Minister of Transport, A. Kozlov, the head of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, as the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, and the Deputy Head of the Department, I. Faizullin, as the head of the Ministry of Construction.

The prime minister also recommended approving Minister of Energy A. Novak as the 10th Deputy Prime Minister, and to appoint the head of RusHydro N. Shulginov in his place. For the post of the head of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East was proposed the head of the Fund for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic A. Chekunkova.

The appointments are carried out in accordance with the new procedure for the formation of the Government of the Russian Federation signed by V. Putin on 6 November. According to the document, the State Duma will approve the candidacies of the prime minister, his deputies and ministers (with the exception of the security officials and the head of the Foreign Ministry), and the president will appoint them.

II. Analyzing personnel changes, experts highlight the following main points.

1. The fuel and energy complex will remain a priority in the Russian economy and foreign policy. It is for these purposes that the position of the 10th Deputy Prime Minister is being introduced, who will coordinate the fuel and energy complex and industry. A. Novak’s promotion to this post is associated with his successful activity as Minister of Energy.

His most significant achievement was the deal between Russia and the OPEC countries in April 2020 on the reduction of oil production (OPEC +), which made it possible to stop the fall in oil prices and achieve their growth.

A. Novak said that as Deputy Prime Minister, he intends to concentrate his efforts on stimulating oil production and implementing the energy strategy of the Russian Federation until 2035. It is expected that A. Novak will continue to play the role of a negotiator in foreign markets in a higher status.

2. Strengthening the position of M. Mishustin. According to experts, the current personnel reshuffle shows that the Russian prime minister is able to promote his candidacies in the government, replacing some members of the previous Cabinet of Ministers.

This will improve the quality of the prime minister’s control over the government in order to speed up the execution of national projects.

3. The need to comply with the environmental agenda. Experts associate the change of the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources D. Kobylkin with criticism of the implementation of the waste reform and the national project "Ecology". In September this year. specialists of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation have identified critical problems with the collection and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). There is a lack of garbage processing capacities, which will be exhausted in 2022-2024.

At the same time, the created system for the collection and utilization of solid waste led to a jump in tariffs for garbage, an increase in social tension and did not bring sufficient revenues to the state budget.

III. According to independent Russian experts, the new appointments are associated with increased competition in the upper echelons of power and the need to change the balance of power by strengthening some financial and industrial groups and weakening others.

The appointment of A. Novak as Deputy Prime Minister strengthened the position of the head of Rosneft I. Sechin. The reshuffle in the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Ministry of Natural Resources strengthened the position of Deputy Prime Minister Y. Trutnev. Personnel reshuffles are also associated with a redistribution of influence between Sobyanin-Rotenberg and other "Kremlin towers".

The appointment of V. Yakushev as the presidential envoy to the Ural Federal District strengthened the position of Moscow Mayor S. Sobyanin in the Urals. Now the representatives of his "team" will be not only the heads of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Kurgan regions, but also the Urals envoy.

There is an opinion about a possible increase in the influence of the oligarchic Kovalchuk family, which have close contacts with the US Democratic Party.

Observers do not exclude that the rotation will also affect other departments, including the Foreign Ministry, and some power structures. Replacements in key state corporations may also occur.

In turn, the head of the Kremlin press service D. Peskov called the resignations of the ministers "an ordinary rotational process", which are in no way connected with the failure to fulfill the president’s instructions. He stressed that all personnel changes are associated with the need to further improve the efficiency and quality of public administration.