The Russian presidential administration has recommended the creation of a deputy head of information and political work in federal ministries, departments, and state-owned companies.
This was reported by the newspaper “Kommersant”, citing three sources close to the presidential administration.
According to the newspaper, the task of the new deputy ministers would include building an internal communications system and clarifying the Kremlin’s “signals”.
The article by “Kommersant” is indicatively titled: “Weapons of Mass Clarification”.
Somewhere preparations are already underway, with everything being coordinated by the Kremlin’s domestic political bloc. Details such as the fact that no new people will be recruited are known, and the institutions had to transfer this activity to one of the current employees, ie. there may be no formally announced the creation of such posts. Their main tasks will be to build a system of internal communications, through which employees will be informed about the domestic political agenda, as well as monitor the emotional climate and moods in the teams.
The idea was born as a result of last year’s Duma election campaign in September but has now become even more relevant. This happened at one of the meetings with representatives of the presidential administration when it was said that it would be good for the state to return to the Soviet practice of creating a “unified semantic and information field in the departments,” a source told the newspaper.
“Kommersant” quotes another source, according to which officials of the presidential administration spoke about the upcoming appearance of the new posts at a seminar for vice-governors on domestic policy, held from April 7 to 9 at the Senezh sanatorium near Moscow.
In describing the work of such specialists, the interlocutors of the publication use the terms “politicians” and “staff”, and as their main task, they describe the feedback from the teams in the departments to the Kremlin. At the same time, a source from the presidential administration noted that the work of such deputy ministers should not be limited to political information issues: they should clarify both the goals and tasks in their field and domestic policy, including “signals” from The Kremlin.
According to Kommersant, the presidential administration wanted such deputy ministers to be involved in personnel work because they need to know about the mood in the teams and identify the reasons for possible tensions.
One source explains that there are special staffing techniques for this, which are regularly used by human resources specialists, especially in large corporations.
But another described a very different logic behind the idea: at one of last year’s meetings, Kremlin officials said “problems with loyalty to the current course of power” had been identified in many departments. . And not that people do not like power, they just “do not work with it”, the interlocutor of “Kommersant” conveys the words of the participants in the meeting.
An interlocutor who works in a large organization with state participation gives Kommersant an example of such work. Each of its departments has recently appointed a person responsible for informing staff of activities in support of the Russian army, and the boards and various visual content for them come from headquarters.
“For now, they are not forcing, but proposing, if desired, that these posters be placed on the premises of other units of the organization,” the source said. Also, according to him, flash mobs gatherings, sports holidays, and other “activities” under the slogan of moral support for the Russian army are welcome.
It should be noted that in essence such an idea has already been implemented by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmaladyozh), recalls the publication. Since last year, the organization has introduced the institution as deputy director of youth policy in the federal executive. They are involved in information and political work, but only for employees up to 35 years of age.
Many Kommersant sources say that in the future the functions of information and political work with all employees will be assigned to such structures.
