Of course, I’ve listed only the most basic ideas for administrative reform, which is one of the most important tasks for any government that wants to build the new Russia. This reform cannot be put off. If there’s an effectively operating state apparatus, with carefully delineated functions and strict discipline, this will create the conditions for success in all other areas. However, there is one “technical” problem which will hinder its creation: personnel. And, as we know, it’s the personnel who decide everything.
It's impossible to build a new system of management without the right staff. But for various reasons all the available personnel always turn out to be unsuitable. Some are clever, cunning, well trained – but unable to work in a new way and aren’t prepared to learn new methods. Others are so set in their old ways that no talents they may have can possibly compensate for their deceitful mentality. There’s always been a shortage of personnel in Russia. It was always difficult to find a smart worker for any position, especially for state service. And as for finding a smart worker who’s prepared to operate within the confines of a system that doesn’t even exist yet – it’s virtually impossible.
There’s yet another awkward area: new managerial technology. If we don’t introduce this, we’ll never change the system. For now, the whole system of management remains totally archaic. An official’s work involves carrying out registrations; deciding whether or not to issue permits; and also allocating everything that needs to be allocated. Any thinking person could fulfil these tasks if they turned their hand to it. In principle, they could all be done by a tsarist-era clerk from the old Moscow order. They’d just need some computer training. Given that state functions haven’t changed fundamentally since that time it’s unlikely that they’d have a problem. But if we were to carry out the administrative reforms I outlined above, then the functions of the state apparatus would change radically. For this we need a particular type of professional that simply doesn’t exist in Russia – and never has done.
In the first instance we’re talking here about people who can arrange interaction between the regulatory authorities, state supervision bodies and the commercial sector, and who are prepared to take upon themselves the implementation of a significant amount of the state’s tasks. This is how the modern world works. I have in mind here especially various public-private partnerships. It’s impossible to imagine a modern state that doesn’t have these now. But without highly qualified specialists who already have serious experience of this, it’s impossible to set this up in Russia.
Where are we going to find these highly qualified specialists for state service? This is a dilemma that we’ve come across before. We could employ our own people, and try to train them on the job. Or, if we could overcome our phobia, we could open the way to state service for foreigners who already have advanced experience of such work. If we take a sober look at Russian history we will see that all of the key, fateful reforms have been solved this way. The pride and joy of the present regime, the Russian army, was created by foreign specialists at the time of Peter the Great. They were also the ones in the age of industrialisation who created the industries that today provide the army with its weaponry. At crucial moments the Russian government didn’t hold back from taking foreigners into its service when this was needed. And more often than not this approach justified itself.
The conclusion is simple: we have to follow both paths. We have to train our own people where we can and as thoroughly as we can; but while they’re training we mustn’t be too afraid or embarrassed to hire foreigners. If we wish quickly to change the quality of the civil service in Russia, we have to open the door to foreign specialists. Of course, we must put in place sensible safeguards, but I can see no other solution today, especially in those areas where there’s virtually no home-grown experience. In any case, we’re not talking about huge numbers of people. I believe that we would need between 3,000 and 5,000 specialists in the central structures, and half that number in the regions. But we mustn’t repeat the mistakes made under Gorbachev and Yeltsin. We have to invite genuinely the best professional managers and not “the boys from Chicago”. We have to hire the most progressive managers from international corporations and government structures all over the world, those who have practical, not just theoretical experience of management. We must give them the chance to work for us and teach those who’ll be working alongside them. I suggest that this will take about five years, ten at the most.
If we want quality, we have to be prepared to pay for it – both our own people and the foreigners. We must offer sufficiently high salaries, so that we can demand what we want from them, including total honesty. We’ll have to pay the foreigners more. But Russia is a sufficiently wealthy country that we can afford to employ in our service not simply the best from among 140 million, but the best from a few billion, selecting them on an individual basis. This, incidentally, takes great skill, and we shall also have to seek the assistance of true professionals to take part in the search. I have my own experience which I’m prepared to share. When I had to turn YUKOS into a leading international company, the foreigners whom I invited to join us were paid more than I was. Then, of course, I recouped the costs when it came to paying dividends. But that was much later. At first, we had a great deal to learn. And we paid well for this knowledge. There is no alternative.
To sum up, I repeat again that a comprehensive administrative reform of the civil service is an issue that brooks no delay. It must be a priority for whatever government comes after the Putin regime. The aim of this reform (that incidentally was one that Putin himself called a priority, and was one of his first total failures) is to turn an archaic, semi-Soviet, semi-feudal state structure into a modern system of management. In essence, Russia has to start from scratch to create a civil service independent of both politics and business. And in order to get it right, we need once again to do what we’ve done many times before in our history and invite into the Russian state service foreigners who have the necessary knowledge and experience. Incidentally, this will be easier for us to do than it was for our ancestors. The Putin regime has forced tens of thousands of talented people out of the country. These people have gained invaluable experience in Western corporations, and in the right circumstances can return to their Motherland.
Chapter 10. What’s Meant by “a Turn to the Left”:
a Welfare State or a Socialist State?
I’ve had a great deal of time to think about mistakes – both the ones I’ve made and other peoples’. But it didn’t take me long to find the greatest of them. Back in 2004, when I was contemplating how it was that we – and I personally – had ended up where we were, I wrote the first version of “A Turn to the Left”. At that time, this title may have seemed a little odd. You may think that a man who had been able to make use of all the advantages that the market economy gave to enterprising people would have been just the person to write about a turn to the right (in the economic sense). But long before my row with Putin’s regime crossed over to its open and acute phase, I had understood clearly that for Russia, with its history, its mentality and its traditions, a right-leaning, liberal policy would lead it into a complete dead-end. I still hold to this view today, fifteen years after that first article saw the light of day.