Klebanov To Oversee Northwest Federal District
By Lyuba Pronina and Galina Stolyarova
STAFF WRITERS
St. Petersburg Times
November 4, 2003

President Vladimir Putin appointed Ilya Klebanov, the minister of industry, science and technology, to be his representative to the Northwest Federal District, the Kremlin announced Saturday.

Most analysts said the move was a further demotion for Klebanov, a former deputy prime minister, whose plans to reform the defense industry ran into powerful opposition.

Klebanov, 52, will replace St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, who was Putin's envoy to the district before her election last month.
Klebanov, in charge of the defense industry since 1999, was stripped of his deputy prime minister post in February 2002. He continued to serve as minister of industry, science and technology, while Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov assumed direct responsibility for defense contracts.

The reforms Klebanov introduced in 2001, intended to consolidate the country's 1,700 defense enterprises into a smaller number of holdings, were widely criticized by industry players and analysts as ill-conceived. Klebanov's plans stalled, and he also was accused of taking sides in awarding defense contracts.

During 2002, Kasyanov stepped in to overturn two key defense contract awards involving sales to China of 40 Su-30 fighter jets and two destroyers.
Since then, Klebanov appeared to gradually lose control over reform - a process that accelerated after Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin took up oversight of the defense industry upon his appointment in April 2003 and moved to review Klebanov's plans.

Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst with INDEM, said Klebanov not only failed to produce any significant results during his tenure or make use of his talents in Moscow, but didn't even manage to show a bit of personality.

"Klebanov is one of those people who is neither fish or fowl," Korgunyuk said Monday. "He is very different from others in the St. Petersburg team of reformers, like [German] Gref or [Alexei] Kudrin, but quite honestly, I am still guessing what was so good about him that the president raised him that high."
"The military-industrial complex will be happy," said Konstantin Makiyenko, the deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, or CAST, in a reaction to Klebanov's appointment.

Korgunyuk, in turn, branded Klebanov's new job as unimportant, suggesting that it would take nothing but loyalty and punctuality to do it well.
"Look at the others doing the same job, they don't have particular talents, with the only bright exception being perhaps Kiriyenko. "

Ruslan Pukhov, the director of CAST, welcomed the decision but shared Korgunyuk's view of the job itself.

"This is an elegant dismissal," he said. "Originally the institution of [presidential] envoys was created parallel to the governors inherited from the Family. Now that everyone is reined in, this post is merely a decorative one. You could even put a Cheburashka [toy mouse] there."

But Tatyana Protasenko, a political analyst with the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, disagrees, and draws a parallel between Klebanov's appointment and that of Valentina Matviyenko, his predecessor as presidential representative.

"It is definitely not a step down," she said. "Both Matviyenko and Klebanov have a clear important task from the president to bring St. Petersburg closer to Moscow. The president needs strong executives in his hometown, and with Klebanov's appointment he gets what he wanted."

An engineer by profession, Klebanov headed the commission investigating the Kursk submarine disaster in August 2000, in which 118 sailors were killed.

His appointment as presidential envoy was generally received positively on Saturday.

"I also very much welcome the fact that Klebanov is not from security services," Protasenko said. "Growing numbers of them in governmental structures of all levels up to the highest were getting alarming and provoked much speculation."

Klebanov's appointment keeps a non-member of the siloviki - people who made their career in the military, police or secret services and who, because of the Yukos investigation, are seen as having gained the upper hand over oligarchic interests in the Kremlin - in charge in the district.

Most heads of the seven districts are siloviki, but Klebanov, like his predecessor, current governor Valentina Matviyenko, who replaced Viktor Cherkesov in March, is not one of them.

"[Klebanov] knows the Northwest district, the military-industrial complex, ship-building industry and St. Petersburg," Interfax quoted Matviyenko as saying.

"He will be very useful for the city in solving problems with the federal center."

Conflicts between Putin and Yakovlev, who beat Putin's mentor and former boss, then mayor Anatoly Sobchak, in an election to run St. Petersburg in 1996, are thought to have poisoned the city's relations with the federal government and contributed to neglect of the northern capital's infrastructure and decaying housing stock.

"I don't think a more suitable candidate for the post could have been found," Interfax quoted Sobchak's widow and Federation Council member for Tuva, Lyudmila Narusova. "Ilya Iosofovich [Klebanov] knows the region well and is an outstanding manager, so I welcome his return to his native hearth and home."

Leningrad region governor Valery Serdyukov said Klebanov is an experienced politician, but focused on Klebanov's economic role.
"If we talk about the scientific-industrial potential of the [Northwest] district, then he is one of the best candidates," Interfax quoted Serdyukov as saying. "Ilya Isofovich may help us develop the sector to its full potential."

Others concentrated on Klebanov's ability to get along with the St. Petersburg governor as a key asset.
State Duma deputy speaker and Union of Right Forces co-leader Irina Khakamada described Klebanov as having progressive points of view together with a conservative ones, Interfax reported.
"He has no contradictions with Valentina Matviyenko and they will be able to work together in an absolutely friendly way," she said. "Therefore I think this is a very useful appointment that will benefit the district and St. Petersburg,"

Duma Deputy Igor Artemyev, a St. Petersburg Yabloko party member, called the appointment logical and justifiable, Interfax reported.