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СМИ об исследованиях

| 05 ноября, 2014

At the regional direction without change

On Thursday, 6th November, the Foundation for Civil Society Development (FCSD) revealed its latest rating on the efficacy of Governors. For the first time since the study began, the list remained virtually the same as the previous rating, maintaining the same balance between leaders and outsiders. Movement between places within the list was less marked this time due to adjustments which have been made to the rating system. The so called ‘QTY factor which takes into account the competitiveness, transparency and legitimacy of the regional leaders was not used because it was found to have negatively affected the position of a number of governors.

There were no changes at all in the top ten ratings. Igor Koshin, head of the Nenets Autonomous Region moved down four positions from the group of governors with a very high rating to the group with high rating.

Konstantin Kostin, head of the FCSD, explained that the top officials in the regions seem unable to reach full agreement amongst themselves. For example, experts pointed out the weakness of one particular governor who failed to put forward Olga Pakhomova for the post of Chairman of the Board of Naryan-Mar despite the fact that she had previously been supported in the United Russia conference. Instead of her, the Board voted for Olga Starostina – also a United Russia candidate – but one who had put herself forward without the approval of other party members.

Kostin stressed that the inability of high placed officials (the ‘elite’) to agree amongst themselves, is becoming an important factor in the placement of governors in the rankings. The heads of the Sverdlovsk, Orlovsk and Kostroma regions climbed in the rankings due to successful coordination among influential groups there. Thus Yevgenny Kuivashev, Vadim Potomsky and Sergei Sitnikov all rose by 2 places.

Mikhail Vinogradov, President of the ‘Petersburg Politics’ Foundation and one of the ratings experts, agreed with Kostin. He said that although there is no evidence of mass ‘social tension’ in the regions, there is already evidence of some unrest and this is expected to increase in the run up to Spring.

Various incidents involving corruption pose another major problem which so far remains unresolved. It is because of corruption scandals for example that the heads of the Astrakhan and Nizhny Novgorod regions, Alexander Zhilkin and Valery Shantsev dropped in the ratings.

Andrei Kochetkov, head of the Centre for Political Studies for the Foundation for Civil Society Development, explained why Alexei Gordeev, governor of the Voronezh Region had fallen in the ratings by two places. “There are social problems in the regions which first and foremost are linked with replacing the old, dilapidated housing and preparations for the heating season,” he said. “We have even seen heads of municipal areas forced to retire due to deficiencies with management companies.”

Mikhail Vinogradov, who usually endorsed the ratings as a whole, had a number of comments to make on the present rating.

Following the regional elections in October, the rating stopped using the so called QTY factor (competitiveness, transparency and legitimacy of the electoral process as assessed by independent observers) because in the fourth and fifth releases of the ratings it was the QTY factor which led to the most significant drop in ratings among governors.

However, as Kostin explained, «those governors, who have already fallen foul of the QTY factor did not see an improvement in their rating (following its exclusion from the process.) And this confirms that problems with competitiveness, transparency and legitimacy are of a long-term, negative character.

The head of the Foundation also announced the emergence of a new methodology for assessing ratings based on a new, purely politically orientated module. From the start of 2015, experts intend to study the efficacy of administrative offices in regional administrations responsible for internal policy.

«This involves working with NGOs who are involved in the area of international relations» said Kostin. «Many other areas are not directly related to the elections. In other words, the new module will be a constant factor and the QTY factor only a temporary one».