The Presidential Executive Office of Russia[1] or the Presidential Administration of Russia (Russian: Администрация Президента Российской Федерации, romanized: Administratsiya Prezidenta Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the executive office of the President of Russia created by a decree of Boris Yeltsin on 19 July 1991 as an institution supporting the activity of the president (then Yeltsin) and the vice-president (then Aleksandr Rutskoy, in 1993 the position was abolished) of Russian SFSR (now Russian Federation), as well as deliberative bodies attached to the president, including the Security Council.
The Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, his deputies, heads of main directorates and services and their deputies are appointed by the President of Russia and do not need to be approved by any other government body. Other staff are appointed by the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.
On 2 October 1996, Boris Yeltsin signed a decree approving the Regulations of Presidential Administration of Russia.[2]
On 25 March 2004, Vladimir Putin undertook a major reorganisation of this institution by a decree.[3] Only two deputy chiefs remained out of seven. The Press Office and the Information Office were merged into the Press and Information Office, and the Pardon Directorate and the Citizenship Directorate were merged into the Directorate for Protecting Citizens' Constitutional Rights. The Personnel Directorate and the State Decorations Directorate were merged into the Personnel and State Decorations Directorate, the Protocol Directorate and the Organisation Directorate were merged into the Protocol and Organization Directorate. The Territorial Directorate was included in the Domestic Policy Directorate. The Economic Directorate was abolished, while the Civil Service Directorate was created.
The Presidential Executive Office of Russia is situated in Moscow, where it holds offices in several buildings in Kitay-gorod and inside the Kremlin.[4]
Initially the Presidential Administration of Russia was conceived as kind of office of the head of state. However, since Putin came to power this public body has assumed an enhanced role. On 9 May 2000, the newspaper Kommersant had published the document called «Revision number Six», which was the reform project of Presidential Administration. Before the text of the document, editor-in-chief wrote: «the fact that such program is being developing is very important it is in itself … if this will be a reality, almost of the entire population of Russia – from politicians and governors to ordinary voters – will be under surveillance by secret services».[5] This document was published again in 2010.[6]
Furthermore, on 9 May 2000, the newspaper Kommersant had published the article by deputy editor-in-chief Veronika Kutsyllo, according to which the text of «Revision number Six» had been provided to journalists by anonymous employee of the Presidential Administration; Putin was mentioned in the text of this document as acting President and the attached charts, totalling more than 100 pages, were drawn up before 1999 Russian legislative election, and these facts created the reason to believe that the work on this document started long before 2000 Russian presidential election.[7]
The authors of «Revision number Six» stated that Russian social and political system at the time was self-regulatory that was totally unacceptable to Putin who wished that all social and political processes in Russia were completely managed by one single body. The Presidential Administration and, more specifically, its Domestic Policy Directorate was to be such body.
The authors of «Revision number Six» rejected the possibility of direct prohibition on opposition activities and independent mass media activities considering that Russian society was not ready for that, and it was the reason, they proposed that Domestic Policy Directorate of the Presidential Administration uses the combination of public and secret activities. Secret activities were to be carried out with the direct use of special services, in particular, Federal Security Service.[8] The main objective of such secret activity was to take control over activity of political parties, community and political leaders, governors, legislatures, candidates for elective positions, election commissions and election officials, mass media and journalists. To achieve this objective, the following tasks were set: 1) the collection information (including dirt) about individuals and organizations of interests and the pressure on them; 2) the creation of conditions under which independent mass media cannot operate; 3) taking control over elections to ensure the victories of pro-Kremlin candidates; 4) the establishment of civil society organizations which are ostensibly independent but actually are under the full control of the Kremlin; 5) the discredit the opposition and the creation of the informational and political barrier around Putin (good things happen thanks to Putin personally but bad officials are responsible for bad things and not Putin; Putin doesn’t respond to opposition’s charge and doesn’t participate in debates – others do that for him).
On 7 May 2016, the newspaper Kommersant had published an article by Ilya Barabanov and Gleb Cherkasov containing an analysis of the implementation of provisions of «Revision number Six». They concluded that, although the authors of «Revision number Six» had not taken into account some things (for example, authors of the aforementioned document denied the need for creation of pro-Kremlin political party, which actually was established subsequently), by and large, the provisions of «Revision number Six» were conducted.[12]
Current staff of the Presidential Executive Office
Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office:
Presidential Envoys to Federal districts of Russia
The Federal districts of Russia are a level of administration for the convenience of the federal government and have been organised in 2000. They are not the constituent units of Russia (which are the federal subjects). Each district includes several federal subjects and each federal district has a presidential envoy (whose official title is Plenipotentiary Representative). The official task of the Plenipotentiary Representative is simply to oversee the work of federal agencies in the regions, although in practice this oversight is extensive and of considerable consequence. Federal districts' envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjects and the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects with the federal laws.
