Vladimir Putin has rearranged the top tier of Russia’s government. On Thursday the president signed decrees confirming five appointments that the State Duma had approved a day earlier, and they took effect immediately. Russia now has eleven deputy heads of government, one more than before.
The biggest symbolic move concerns money. A new post of deputy prime minister and finance minister has been created for Anton Siluanov, the long-serving keeper of Russia’s budget, who keeps his ministry but gains seniority in the cabinet.
The government’s administrative engine room also has a new chief. Dmitry Grigorenko has left his job as deputy prime minister and head of the government staff, and Sberbank’s supervisory board is due to consider him for a deputy chief executive role. Irina Okladnikova, until now first deputy finance minister, replaces him.
Transport sees a double change. Andrey Nikitin, who ran the transport ministry, is promoted to deputy prime minister, while Dmitry Yadrov, who until now headed Rosaviatsiya, the civil aviation regulator, takes over the ministry itself.
In the Far East, Yury Trutnev gives up both of his hats, deputy premier and Putin’s personal representative in the region, and becomes an aide to Putin instead. Oleg Kozhemyako, who has governed the Pacific province of Primorye, inherits the two posts.
None of the newcomers is an outsider; each was promoted from within the existing state machinery, which suggests continuity rather than a change of direction. What the reshuffle does show is where the Kremlin is putting weight: on public finances, on transport, and on a Far Eastern region it has long treated as strategically vital. According to the government’s press office, the reshaped cabinet was scheduled to hold its first meeting on Thursday.
