State service of the national economy – Newspaper Kommersant No. 12 (7457) of 01/24/2023

Economist Vladimir Mau left the post of rector of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), which he headed since 2010. According to the official version, Mr. Mau left “of his own free will due to health reasons.” A few months ago, the ex-rector was a defendant in a criminal case of embezzlement, but did not plead guilty, and last fall the case was dismissed. And about. Aleksey Komissarov, Vice-Rector, who simultaneously holds the post of Director of the ANO “Russia – a Land of Opportunities”, has been appointed head of the main forge of civil service personnel.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin dismissed Vladimir Mau from the post of rector of the RANEPA. On government website it is said that this was done “at his own request” by Mr. Mau “in connection with the state of health.” Vice-Rector Alexei Komissarov has been appointed Acting Head of the Academy.

Vladimir Mau is 63 years old, since 2002 he worked as the rector of the Academy of National Economy under the Russian government, and since 2010 (after merging with the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation) – head of the RANEPA.

Pavel Kudyukin, co-chairman of the independent trade union University Solidarity, says that the unification of these educational institutions was connected precisely with Mr. Mau.

“In the Academy of National Economy, the teaching and scientific staff was more progressive. And the Academy of Civil Service still preserved the traditions of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, from which it was created,” recalls Mr. Kudyukin. “Mau had a difficult task to merge two heterogeneous organisms. As a result, RANEPA began to compete with leading universities – both as an advanced educational institution and as an expert center under the authorities.” Irina Abankina, Chief Researcher at the Institute for Education Development at the Higher School of Economics, points out that under Vladimir Mau, the academy has evolved from an additional professional training institution into a modern network university and an expert and analytical center, whose employees were involved, in particular, in preparing Russia’s development strategies until 2020 and 2035 .

Mr. Kudyukin calls Vladimir Mau an “authoritarian” rector: “It was quite enlightened, but absolutism. There was no need to talk about some kind of real academic self-government at the university.” At the same time, Mr. Mau is called a classic systemic liberal. In this regard, a number of Kommersant’s interlocutors draw an analogy with the departure of Yaroslav Kuzminov from the post of rector of the Higher School of Economics in July 2021, which was then designated by some experts as “the end of the era of systemic liberals in Russia.” One of Kommersant’s interlocutors did not rule out even then that a similar scenario awaited the rector of the RANEPA. However, Mr. Mau in 2021 participated in the formation of the United Russia program for the Duma elections. On the basis of the Higher School of Public Administration at the RANEPA, by that time, a special educational program had been functioning for several years, the graduates of which were used by the Kremlin’s internal political bloc as a personnel reserve. In the expert community, it is called the “School of Governors” – its completion in recent years has become an almost mandatory condition for applicants for the post of head of the region.

Nevertheless, Mr. Mau was “hinted in the criminal case that the good times for such people are over,” Mr. Kudyukin believes.

Recall, in June 2022, Vladimir Mau was charged with fraud on an especially large scale on two counts. The investigation considered him involved in the theft of RANEPA funds in the amount of 21 million rubles, non-fulfillment of agreements between the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (Shaninka) and the Foundation for New Forms of Education Development, as well as fictitious employment of 12 employees. Mr. Mau was detained on June 30, pleaded not guilty, and as a result, in October 2022, the case was dismissed. In November, the rector left for Israel – the RANEPA stated that this was an agreed planned vacation, during which the leadership of the academy was entrusted to Vice-Rector Dmitry Arefiev. “The fact that he resigned and will remain abroad can be seen as a natural and symbolic outcome of the novels of systemic liberals with the authorities,” Mr. Kudyukin believes.

The current and about. Rector of the RANEPA 53-year-old Alexei Komissarov has been the Vice-Rector of the Academy and Director of the Higher School of Public Administration of the RANEPA since 2017. Since 2018, he has also been head of the Presidential Platform “Russia – Land of Opportunities” (RSV), the most famous of whose personnel competitions are “Leaders of Russia”. RSV, like the “School of Governors”, is called the project of the Kremlin’s internal political bloc, headed by the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. Mr. Komissarov told the media on Monday that the rector of the RANEPA could be appointed in a few months. The RSV reports that Alexey Komissarov will retain the post of CEO.

The press secretary of the head of state, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that Vladimir Putin was aware of the personnel reshuffle at the RANEPA: “Of course, the president was informed about this,” leads TASS the words of Mr. Peskov in response to the question whether this decision was agreed with the president.

In 2011, Mr. Komissarov defended his Ph.D. thesis “Development of Entrepreneurship in an Innovative Economy” at the RANEPA, but in 2013, the Dissernet project found unformed borrowings in it. After that, Mr. Komissarov contacted Dissernet, met with the project participants, and then voluntarily renounced his degree. Andrey Rostovtsev, co-founder of the project, says that “in the history of Dissernet, this was the first and still the rarest honest and courageous act.” In the same 2013, Alexei Komissarov was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the British University of Kingston for his contribution to the development of the entrepreneurial movement. Having personal entrepreneurial experience, in 2008 Mr. Komissarov won the competition “Personnel reserve – the country’s professional team”, and in 2010, together with Mr. Mau, he created and headed the business incubator of the Academy of National Economy. In February 2011, he headed the Department for Support and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Moscow, later merged with the Department of Science and Industrial Policy. After leaving the post of minister of the Moscow government in 2014, he remained an adviser to the mayor Sergei Sobyanin, then worked at the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management and headed the Industry Development Fund.

“Now the question is whether the change in the leadership of the RANEPA has some political and substantive tasks, or it is more about establishing control over a large structure,” says political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov.

In his opinion, Mr. Mau’s resignation “looks like a success for the internal political bloc of the presidential administration, which used the RANEPA for its educational projects” and is “expanding into the educational environment.” On the other hand, the political scientist believes that the replacement of the head of the RANEPA can be interpreted as a signal “that the academy has been taken out from under the blow in the struggle of the apparatus groups”: “Criminal cases were its symbol, and their continuation would now look strange.”

Note, in 2022, the Moscow prosecutor’s office filed claims against the Liberal Arts programs implemented by the Institute of Social Sciences at the RANEPA. At that time, the supervisory authority found that ten Liberal Arts programs did not comply with Art. 38 and 43 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (concerning the care of children and their education), as well as the principles of the national security strategy. The agency came to the conclusion that the model of these programs “is aimed at destroying the traditional values ​​of Russian society and distorting history,” and also “helps to reduce the subject-methodological and educational component in the preparation of future graduates.” According to the prosecutor’s office, the educational process based on Liberal Arts programs “does not create conditions for self-determination and socialization of students on the basis of socio-cultural, spiritual and moral values, with the rules and norms of behavior accepted in Russian society.” The RANEPA then told Kommersant that the university, together with the prosecutor’s office, was considering the audit materials in order to “make all the necessary decisions.” As a result, the Faculty of Liberal Arts was disbanded.

Anna Vasilyeva, Andrey Vinokurov