A well-known soviet slogan “personnel matters everything” is becoming in modern Russia not only an actual political task, but also another demarcation line in politics.   

At a recent meeting, dedicated to forming the reserve of state managing staff, President Dmitry Medvedev announced forming a special presidential quota for most promising candidates to fill high ranking posts. Along with that the head of state noted that he would be assessing himself the “personal professional achievements of those people”. 

Political meaning of the presidential initiatives is quite clear. Undoubtedly, this is a publicly made claim for forming one’s own team instead of that inherited from the predecessor. At the same time, this is about intention to remind that the personnel policy is prerogative of the President. This is one of sources of real power and the leading role of the presidential institution in the Russian politics. And the statement was made at the right moment. Now it has become evident that the current practice of appointing the heads of the regions is malfunctioning, which has resulted in coming to power by incompetent and distrusted by local population and by regional elites governors, in some regions.    

It’s clear that something must be changed in this practice. Then again, if the statements about presidential prerogatives in the personnel policy are so obvious, what was all that repeated for? The answer to this question was not long to come. Right the next day, United Russia hurried to declare its wish to participate in forming the reserve of the state managing personnel. Then the media published explanations that the party in power has done some groundwork, namely a project titled “Personnel reserve as a professional team of the country”, and the work on this project is going to become more active soonest.      

Considering that there are plans by United Russia about preliminary agreement given by the local divisions of the party when appointments are made to the key positions in the regions, then the picture becomes clear. That means, United Russia is also getting to claim to play leading role in the personnel policy, in the regions first. If such a practice proves to be useful, it might be applied to the federal bodies of power, for example, in raising a question again about a government formed by the party majority in the lower chamber of the parliament. And that would be the way of turning presidential system into a mixed presidential-parliament republic.      

All that looks quite real, as Vladimir Putin is the leader of the party in power, and he is still more popular than other politicians. To make more logic the claims by United Russia for participation in taking personnel decisions, it is possible to suggest to the president some assistance in forming the managing reserve. This way a purely “technical” question of who should have the priority in the managing staff policy is becoming into a sharply political one about future system of governing in Russia: will our country remain a presidential republic or will it be gradually moving towards delegation of the real power to parliament and government?