Russian Pundits Say New Governor Of Moscow Region Has Big Shoes To Fill

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, 6 November) Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Anatoliy Serdyukov as defence minister on 6 November and appointed Sergey Shoygu, who has been Moscow Region governor since 11 May 2012, as his replacement. (Passage omitted)

Political analysts and politicians believe that the Russian Defence Ministry will get a strong leader, however Moscow Region will “lose out” with Shoygu’s departure, as he has serious political clout and proved able to effectively defend the interests of the region at the federal level. His successor is unlikely to be able to do this as well, experts say.

(Passage omitted – details on Shoygu-led administrative, economic and social reforms in Moscow Region.)

Shoygu’s political clout helped achieve results

Political analysts and politicians gave a positive assessment of Shoygu’s work over the last six months, and believe that “the region will be sorry” to see him go.

“The issue is that Shoygu, with his huge political authority, started serious work and was able to achieve many positive things for the region. He launched the process of decriminalizing the region, restored communication with the public in the region and was able to take a number of decisions that pacified the public. He became quite popular with the residents, was able to reset the relationship with the public,” the vice-chancellor of the Russia’s Plekhanov Economics University, Public Chamber member Sergey Markov, said.

He said that “Shoygu’s departure will become a problem for Moscow Region”.

“Shoygu had political clout which allowed him to engage in a dialogue with (Moscow mayor Sergey) Sobyanin. Any other person would have been forced to abide by the Moscow mayor’s terms, which may not always have been ideal for the residents of Moscow Region. It will hard to carry on a dialogue, let alone a debate, with the capital without serious political clout. There are no guarantees that there will be a person with the same political clout – such a person will be hard to find,” he said.

However, even the Moscow authorities, who Shoygu argued with as regards matters of compensation for regional territories that were transferred to the city, believe that he worked effectively as Moscow Region governor, including as regards cooperation with the capital.

“I think that the cooperation was quite effective, because it virtually didn’t exist beforehand. Of course, views did not always align, but thanks to talks and meetings, we were able to reach compromise solutions,” the chairman of the Moscow City Duma legislation commission, Aleksandr Semennikov, said.

He said that that Moscow and the region need to develop as a single whole, so the Moscow City Duma will work with the new authorities of Moscow Region.

Hopes that Shoygu’s initiatives will be implemented

Environmentalists are also sorry to see Shoygu go. They note that he paid special attention to resolving regional ecological issues; however the governor did not have enough time to bring the plans to life.

“At this stage, we (Greenpeace Russia – RIA Novosti) cannot speak about Shoygu’s plans having any real continuation. We had talks with representatives of the Moscow Region governor as regards establishing a separate waste collection system, and the intentions of the authorities inspired optimism. But it is too early to speak about specific solutions and actions,” Greenpeace programme director Ivan Blokov told RIA Novosti.

The head of Rosleskhoz (Russian Forestry Management Agency), Vladimir Dmitriyev, noted that the forestry agency and the former Moscow Region governor set out large-scale plans for restoring Moscow Region forests but their implementation requires the backing of the new regional head.

“For example, we have already been able to establish a system for protecting forests from fires. Plans adopted for clearing out forest damaged by fires (in the summer of 2010 – RIA Novosti) and the processing of low-quality timber (there are many old trees in Moscow Region that need to be cut down – RIA Novosti). Active work began on preventive tree-felling to combat timber beetle infestation. Undoubtedly, we would like to have governor Shoygu’s vector pursued by his successor,” Dmitriyev told RIA Novosti.

The change in Moscow Region governor will put a freeze on a number of regional housing construction projects, which are awaiting approval from the authorities, experts polled by RIA Novosti said.

“A change in regional leadership will put a number of projects that are awaiting approval from the authorities up in the air. Several new projects, which are yet to move into the construction phase, will be frozen. Accordingly supply will gradually contract and demand for housing in Moscow Region will grow,” the head of the Est-a-Tet, Denis Bobkov, said.

Experts gave quite a high assessment of the results of several months of Shoygu’s work as Moscow Region governor. Among the achievements of the new defence minister, RIA Novosti interlocutors named the creation of a civilized housing market in Moscow Region, the establishment of a dialogue with investors and the course for the construction of social and transport infrastructure in Moscow Region.

Real estate market players also recall that Shoygu systematized information about idle lands in the region, began creating mechanisms for the withdrawal of these lands and began to actively fight against illegally created apartment blocks on plots of land zoned for individual private housing.