Former census curator Smelov became general director of the Central Social Research Center

Pavel Smelov has been appointed as the new general director of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR), the CSR press service reported.

“Today the Center for Strategic Research needs to focus, first of all, on solving practical, applied issues subordinated to the tasks of supply-side economics. It should become a leading platform for building dialogue and finding solutions for society, business and the state,” the press service quotes the chairman of the board of the CSR Foundation, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov.

According to him, the CSR will undergo a “reboot” in connection with the new tasks that new market trends pose before it, the need for research and a systematic dialogue between business and the state on an independent platform. The center, Reshetnikov added, will focus on solving practical issues subordinated to the tasks of supply-side economics, becoming a leading platform for finding solutions for society, business and the state.

As Smelov himself said, due to the departure of international players from Russia, CSR had the opportunity to become a leader in the expert consulting market.

“The center will focus on building independent forecasts for the development of our economy, an objective and independent assessment of how national development goals are being achieved, how national projects are being implemented,” he explained.

In addition, the new composition of the Council of the CSR Foundation was approved. It included Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations Vladimir Efimov, Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University Alexander Auzan, Chief Economist VEB.RF Andrey Klepach, as well as Director of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Shirov.

Pavel Smelov, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Socio-Economic Statistics at MESI, previously served as Deputy General Director of the Center for Social Sciences. In 2019-2021 he worked at Rosstat, where, as deputy head, he oversaw the conduct of the All-Russian Population Census of Russia in the fall of 2021. Previously, he held senior positions in the Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow, the Research Institute of Innovative Analytical Developments and Statistics, MESI, etc.

Previously, the CSR from September 2020 to April 2023 was headed by the former first deputy head of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation, Vladislav Onishchenko. The TsSR was founded in 1999, at various times its leadership included the head of Sberbank German Gref, the chairman of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, presidential aide Maxim Oreshkin and others. In November 2018, the Ministry of Energy became one of the founders of the TsSR.