The Minister of Justice became the main candidate for the post of head of the Accounts Chamber

Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko became the main candidate for the post of chairman of the Accounts Chamber, a source familiar with the discussion of the list of candidates for this post told Vedomosti. Four other Vedomosti interlocutors also know about this: one is close to the Accounts Chamber (SP), two are close to the government, and the fourth is close to the Kremlin. Of all the applicants for this position previously featured on the public agenda, the current Minister of Justice is the most logical candidate, added a source close to the joint venture. Chuichenko’s appointment was actively expected in the SP in January, according to interlocutors close to the government and to the SP. At the same time, according to them, the candidacies of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak and First Vice Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov (RBC wrote about them) are not being considered at the moment.

Vedomosti sent inquiries to representatives of the joint venture, the Ministry of Justice, the Federation Council, as well as Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

The specifics of the work of the joint venture as a whole should be close to Chuichenko – he headed the Control Directorate of the President, which was largely similar in tasks, recalls one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors. The former chairman of the joint venture, Alexei Kudrin, also headed the Main Control Department – in 1996-1997.

Political scientist Aleksey Chadaev compares the Joint Venture in terms of control powers with law enforcement agencies: “The whole question is to what extent Chuichenko, if he is appointed, will use them, since it cannot be said that Kudrin used them.” At the same time, Chadayev admits, in the role of the head of the joint venture, Chuichenko will have “much more opportunities to have a dissenting opinion on the activities of the government than in the role of the Minister of Justice,” especially since he is “not his own” for the current White House team.

The Minister of Justice does not report directly to the Prime Minister, but directly to the President, and is also a member of the Security Council. Chuichenko has been head of the Ministry of Justice since January 2020, when the composition of the government was last changed in Russia after the appointment of Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister. Prior to that, in the government of Dmitry Medvedev, from 2018 to 2020, he was Deputy Prime Minister – Head of the Government Staff. Chuichenko is considered an ally of Medvedev, several interlocutors told Vedomosti. They studied in the same group at the Faculty of Law of the Leningrad State University. Prior to joining the government, Chuichenko was an aide to the president – head of the Presidential Control Department.

The fact that Chuichenko, among other candidates, is being discussed for the post of chairman of the joint venture, Vedomosti was told in mid-January by an interlocutor in parliament and a source close to the presidential administration. Later, an interlocutor close to the government told Vedomosti that Chuichenko’s transfer to the joint venture was being discussed both in the Ministry of Justice and in the joint venture itself. Also, another person close to the presidential administration knows about the discussion of Chuichenko’s transition in the Ministry of Justice.

However, the circle of candidates for the post of chairman of the joint venture, who figured in the public field, is quite wide. In addition to Chuichenko, Zhukov and Kozak, Vedomosti sources also named Andrey Makarov, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Budget, Andrey Kutepov, Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee of the Federation Council, Vyacheslav Makarov, First Deputy Head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, and Mikhail Mikhailovich, former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of St. Kotyukov.

The procedure for appointing the chairman of the joint venture is as follows. The budget committee of the Federation Council accumulates proposals from other divisions of the upper house of parliament, passes them to the council of the upper house, which then sends a list of candidates to the head of state. The President selects one applicant and submits his candidature for approval to the senators.

On January 31, the council of the upper house of parliament did not discuss candidates for the post of head of the control body, a Vedomosti source in the Federation Council noted. Accordingly, according to the data for the evening of January 31, this issue was not on the agenda of the meeting of the Federation Council, which will be held on February 1, he clarifies. The committees of the Federation Council, which must first discuss the applicants, also have not met yet. Anatoly Artamonov, chairman of the budget committee of the Federation Council, told Vedomosti that so far no proposals have been received for candidates for the post of head of the joint venture. Another interlocutor in the committee also said that information on the terms and possible candidates for the post of head of the control body has not yet been provided to the senators. But if necessary, all the procedural issues necessary for the appointment of the chairman of the joint venture will be resolved in one day, says one of the sources close to the government.

Galina Izotova, deputy head of the joint venture, is currently acting as chairman of the joint venture. She took this position in accordance with the law. On November 30, the Federation Council dismissed Kudrin from the post of chairman of the joint venture ahead of schedule. He announced his intention to leave the control department the day before in his Telegram channel. Kudrin said that after 25 years of work in the public sector, he decided “to focus on large projects that are associated with the development of private initiatives in a broad sense, but at the same time have a significant effect on people.” Later, he announced that he had moved to work at Yandex as a corporate development adviser.

The chairman is appointed for six years. The same person cannot hold this position for more than two consecutive terms. Kudrin was appointed head of the joint venture in May 2018. Before that, the department was headed by Tatyana Golikova, who left the post due to her appointment as deputy prime minister. Thus, Kudrin’s first term of office was to expire in May 2024.