Moscow - Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is head-hunting businessmen to renew the regional cadre and break up clan loyalties, business daily Vedemosti reported on Thursday. Medvedev aims to to supplant regional governors characterized as loyalist to his predecessor President Valdimir Putin over the next few years, the newspaper said.
"A mass rotation of regional heads is planned, according to an administration official: They already want to replace 16 by the end of this year and 10 the next year," the daily reported.
Vedemosti cited unidentified Kremlin officials as saying that Medvedev, a 42-year-old former corporate lawyer and chairman of energy giant Gazprom, wanted the new faces of the government to be younger than 55 and experienced businessmen.
"Resembling Medvedev himself," the paper quoted the official as saying.
The paper listed some of Russia's most anchored regional heads to get the hatchet, including Moscow Mayor of 16 years Yuri Luzhkov.
Medvedev in a speech on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of regional governors' management and said Russia was suffering from a "famine of personnel."
He called for the creation of a so-called "presidential reserve" to pool candidates handpicked by him for top regional posts and suggested bureaucrats be rotated through jobs to fight corruption and improve effectiveness.
Putin strengthened the Kremlin's control over regional governors in 2005 with a law scrapping popular elections to gubernatorial posts.
Critics say the moved allowed Putin to appoint his loyalist, including Medvedev, to senior government posts.
Olga Khryshtanovskaya, a leading sociologist tracking Kremlin politics, was quoted by business newspaper Kommersant on Thursday as saying the move was an effort to change the federal balance from "loyalty to professionalism."
Investors will also be scrutinizing future changes of cadre in light of Medvedev's promises to battle corruption and in an effort to asses his independence from his mentor come prime minister Putin.
