#14 - RW 274
Moskovskiye Novosti
September 16, 2003
TEN LITTLE INDIANS IN UNIFORM
Generals prove ineffective as regional leaders
Author: Nikolai Petrov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE IDEA OF GENERALS GOVERNING RUSSIA'S REGIONS SEEMS TO HAVE FALLEN THROUGH. THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THEM HAVE BEEN ONE-TERM GOVERNORS. AS A RULE, A GENERAL WHO HOLDS THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR COMBINES INCOMPETENCE WITH CONFIDENCE, DETERMINATION, STRAIGHT- FORWARDNESS AND INABILITY TO COMPROMISE.

Nikolai Petrov, head of the Center of Political-Geographical Research and an expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center:

What do the Smolensk and Kaliningrad regions with a high crime rate, the Voronezh and Ulyanovsk regions with remnants of the former Soviet administrative system, Khakassia and the Krasnoyarsk region rich in aluminium have in common? All these regions are being governed - or have been governed until recently - by high ranking military officers.

At present governors of Russia's regions include three generals of the Federal Security Service (Murat Zyazikov of Ingushetia, Victor Maslov of the Smolensk region and Vladimir Kulakov of the Voronezh region), two Army generals (Boris Gromov of the Moscow region and Vladimir Shamanov of the Ulyanovsk region), one colonel (Alexei Lebed, Khakassia) and an admiral (Vladimir Yegorov, the Kaliningrad region). Over the past eighteen months, two regions - the Krasnoyarsk territory and Karachaevo-Cherkessia - have ceased to be governed by generals: Alexander Lebed died, and Vladimir Semyonov failed to be re-elected. In Ingushetia, FSB general Murat Zyazikov has taken over from President Ruslan Aushev, who used to be an army general. The Kursk region was governed by General Alexander Rutskoi until 2000, but there was no FSB officer to take over.

Since Vladimir Putin became president, the number of military officers holding executive office at both federal and regional levels has dramatically increased. It should be observed that generals holding key ministerial portfolios are less conspicuous than their counterparts governing the regions.

Now that a number of governor elections are at hand, the time has come to survey general-governed regions to see how effective military officers have been as regional leaders.

Generals are like heavily-armed knights: without external support they are able to mount the horse, let alone fight. They are really federal, and this is a great advantage to the Kremlin, since building a military career these people lose ties with regions. This applies in much smaller degree to police generals, but there is none among regional governors, however.

The most original pattern of generals' becoming governors is based on the concept of military leader of the nation. This pattern was popular in early 90's when the national-patriotic movements were on the rise, primarily in the North Caucasus. That period saw Jokhar Dudayev (1991), Aslan Maskhadov (1997), Ruslan Aushev (1992) and Vladimir Semyonov (1999). It is also worth while to mention attempts of Valery Ovchirov and Sufiyan Beppayev to come into power in the Kalmyk Republic (1993) and the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (1991) correspondingly. None of the above-mentioned leaders managed to stay in office by now: the situation has changed and now it calls for "negotiator" and "economic manager" types.

The difference between the other two patterns lies in the source of promotion which may be government departments (just like in case of the above mentioned FSB generals and admiral Yegorov in 2000-02) and financial-industrial groups (the Lebed brothers, Vladimir Shamanov and Boris Gromov).

There is a paradox about generals being in power and it is as follows: coming into office as military men, they can develop careers of civil officials only afterwards.

Probably only two out of a dozen military officers acting as governors have proved somewhat effective. Among them was President Ruslan Aushev of Ingushetia. For a number of years he managed to find a common language with both federal governors and hotheads in Ingushetia itself. Moreover, some governing bodies were established from scratch. It is difficult to say, however, whether the efforts of Murat Zyazikov, who took over a year ago in Ingushetia, will be successful too. Zyazikov's main objective is to develop the republic's economy.

Another example of an effective governor is Boris Gromov. On the one hand, he comes from Yury Luzhkov's team and acts in association with politicians. On the other hand, the Moscow region polycentric and presents a conglomeration without a capital. So, the smallest efforts to establish order are worth praise.

Why are there so few successful examples? As a rule, a general who holds the office of governor is a combination of incompetence on the one hand and confidence, determination, straight-forwardness and incapability to compromise on the other, which can be rarely observed with professional politicians. Unlike politicians, generals have no constant teams. Very often their surrounding includes conquistadorian carpet-baggers. The point is that generals who are alien to local political elites are manipulated by outward forces. A parallel can be drawn to a business: outsiders are interested in getting maximum profit in the shortest possible time rather than development of the enterprise which requires long-term investments. Such tactics could be observed in the Krasnoyarsk and Ulyanovsk regions.

Most generals governing regions are notorious for frequent staff reshuffles (Alexander Lebed had over thirty deputies during three odd years).

Vladimir Kulakov and Vladimir Yegorov obviously proved failures as governors being unable to become masters of the situation. Vladimir Shamanov is far from being a self-dependent type.

LOSING POWER

Apart from Alexei Lebed, who quite satisfies aluminim giant Siberian Aluminum, and Boris Gromov, who is quite a mature self- reliant civilian politician, the generals have proved to be one-term governors. Alexander Rutskoi might have been re-elected - but the Kremlin was not satisfied with his performance, and consequently he was disqualified from the election by a court decision. Ruslan Aushev voluntarily quit office before the term expired. Vladimir Semyonov was beaten by financier Mustafa Batydev at the last election. The list of ex-general-governors may be extended soon. It will be difficult for the governors of the Voronezh, Kaliningrad, Smolensk and Ulyanovsk regions to win the upcoming elections. On the whole, the idea of military officers governing regions has fallen through. It should be admitted that sometimes they were doing quite well. But it was against rather than due to the military frame of mind. The experience has shown that the generals' projects tend to be destructive for local political elites as well. Nonetheless, it is for this reason that they contribute to civil society's foundation. Apparently, generals can only be effective in very depressed regions. In these conditions they make good crisis managers, if not commandants. One can only hope that there will be no need for this type of governor in the foreseeable future.

(Translated by Sergei Kolosov)

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