The appointment of a new Russian government generated predictable interest in foreign media. We have prepared an overview of publications by leading American and European media on the topic of the new Russian government. If we discard the market fundamentalism and snot about democracy familiar to Western publications, then most assessments are quite sober: the appointment of Mishustin and his comrades does not mean at all a departure from the old West-centric (in fact, colonial) model, as the Russian patriots would like, and even more so no not a breakthrough or a breakthrough - but first of all, the tightening of total control and even "techno-authoritarianism" It is characteristic that the Western media practically do not write about the social and ideological component of the new government. This means that it suits them completely, which cannot but alert us:
CNBC: "Russia has a new government - this is what Putin called a" major shake-up "looks like." The article focuses on the fact that many former ministers have remained in their places. The new prime minister is a person with no political past. The new government is called upon to give a new impetus to the Russian economy, increase the real incomes of citizens and, through the implementation of large infrastructure projects, bring Russia to a new economic level. Achieving goals such as strengthening Russia's statehood and position in the world, according to Putin, is quite realistic.
According to the Russian leader, the new government maintains a good balance between new and old cadres. Siluanov, Patrushev, Novak, Shoigu and Lavrov remained in their places. At the same time, Siluanov remains in the post of Minister of Finance, and Andrei Belousov will replace him in the post of First Deputy Prime Minister. The publication mentions this figure in the following aspects: “In 2018, 60-year-old Belousov proposed to force large metallurgical and mining companies to pay windfall tax, which led to a decrease in the prices of their shares, although this proposal was subsequently removed from the agenda. Belousov made headlines last year when he confirmed his friendship with businessman Artyom Avetisyan, whose litigation with the Baring Vostok investment fund rocked the business community.
This is the same story with the arrest of the investor of the Baring Vostok fund Michael Calvey, a US citizen, as well as a number of other leaders. The scandal, according to critics of the Kremlin, damaged the investment climate and slowed down economic growth."
The replacement of Maksim Oreshkin, who worked as Minister of Economy for only three years, with Maksim Reshetnikov, did not go unnoticed either. It is noted that “Reshetnikov previously worked in the administration of the Moscow mayor, and from 2012-2017. headed the Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow in the government of the capital”.
Foreign Policy notes that Mishustin's appointment portends techno-authoritarianism. According to the authors of the publication, Mishustin has already used surveillance methods to improve tax collection. Now he can use this experience to strengthen Putin's authoritarian state.
Many commentators say Mishustin's nomination underscores President Vladimir Putin's concern about the need to revive Russia's stagnant economy. They are not wrong. But to consider the significance of Mishustin's candidacy only from the point of view of its first consequences for Russia's economic growth is to indulge in myopia, which in itself will contribute to Russia's growing turn towards techno-authoritarianism. Like many rock stars, Mishustin's path to international fame has a dark side. He has shown amazing results in building an economic surveillance apparatus that would envy any authoritarian state. As prime minister, his technical expertise can help him improve efficiency and accelerate growth. But the years spent as tax kingalso emphasize the extent to which he can manifest his technocratic gift to advance Putin's strategic goals beyond monetary terms.
If the direction of development of Putin's Russia, as evidenced by the appointment of Mishustin, has some modern analogue, then we are talking about a country that is increasingly becoming an ally of Russia, as well as the world epicenter of techno-authoritarianism - Xi Jinping's China. For Putin, as for Xi, economic growth is likely only part of an overall strategic vision. By his own admission, despite his doctorate in economics, Mishustin was more a technologist than an economist in the post of tax tsar. As prime minister, he will feel like a self-proclaimed technologist who has developed impressive new ways to expand government oversight of the economy.
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As a tax officer, Mishustin developed a set of futuristic technologies that allowed the Russian government to increase its revenues. But these technologies have also enhanced the ability of Putin's authoritarian state to monitor its citizens. After all, the Russian tax authorities not only develop algorithms for data sets, but also have the ability to identify entities and dig up transaction level data at their own discretion. Example: A month after his boss in an interview with the Financial Times said that Western liberalism was "outdated", Mishustin allowed a journalist from the publication to get into the Moscow tax headquarters. Apparently, Mishustin asked the visiting journalist if he had drunk coffee in his hotel the night before. In a matter of minutes Mishustin,who can visualize the contents of his nationwide database on a "huge video wall," showed a compilation of all of the journalist's purchases: latte, espresso, three cappuccino. In other words, Mishustin was happy to point out to a foreign journalist the possibility of observation by the Russian state. The journalist was shown information that, in fact, has nothing to do with tax collections, which are supposedly the target of the system.which are supposedly the target of the system.which are supposedly the target of the system.
Revealing information about the coffee the journalist has drunk does not say anything about the effectiveness of the tax collection system, but rather indicates its possible use as a mechanism for monitoring persons of interest to the Russian authorities. Now, as prime minister, Mishustin is ready to use his technical expertise to push Putin's plans forward. His track record in creating leading technological solutions for the Russian state puts Putin in a position to lead the global trend of techno-authoritarianism.
The status of rock star Mishustin, achieved in the tax service, came about thanks to his performance. During Mishustin’s tenure, the share of Russian value added tax (VAT) excluded by tax authorities reportedly fell from about 20 percent to less than 1 percent, which is probably one of the lowest in the world. For example, a typical developed economy such as the UK has an unrecorded VAT of about 10 percent.
Under Mishustin's leadership, the Russian Federal Tax Service achieved such results by implementing dragnet technology, which collected data on virtually every transaction in Russia. The new legislation requires the submission of all invoices issued by one business to another. After a successful pilot project, the Federal Tax Service began in 2017 to require all retail establishments to use "online cash registers", which automatically transmit data on all transactions to the tax authorities in real time. Even if it happens in Siberia, any operation in Russia is registered in the FTS database in less than 90 seconds. The FTS then applies artificial intelligence to this vast body of data to identify likely tax evaders.
There are not many techno-authoritarian innovations in Putin's Russia that can rival the expanding toolbox shown in China by Xi. However, thanks to Mishustin, Russia has at least one successful technical solution. While estimates of the share of VAT not levied in China remain significantly outdated, even now they seem unlikely to have dropped to the all-time low we see in Russia.
The new Russian prime minister takes office with the baggage of successful work in the tax field. Putin has no shortage of critics in the West on security and human rights issues. But economic technocrats, even in the bastions of Western liberalism, praised Mishustin's economic freak show built for Putin. One official from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) admitted that technical solutions of this kind would require additional work, but he praised the system as a “tipping point” that could allow governments around the world to raise “hundreds of billions” of dollars in new tax revenue. The OECD was founded in 1961 at the height of the Cold War to at least partially serve as a vehicle for the spread of Western liberalism.
If Putin agreed to appoint Mishustin to arouse sympathy in the business West, then it looks like he did it well. Western media highlighted his success in increasing tax revenues, and also drew attention to his doctoral dissertation in economics. At the same time, the main function of a tax official, apparently, is to strengthen the potential of the state, and not to develop the economy.
“We built the technology and now we are becoming economists,” he told the Financial Times, commenting on the development of his tax system.
His tenure as tax man also underscores the extent to which his gift of a technocrat creates opportunities to fulfill Putin's long-standing goal of sowing discord over liberal democracy in Western countries. Putin's attempts to undermine liberal democracy abroad could intensify if the "illiberal model" of the state in Russia offered relative advantages. However, all the quantitative advantages of Putin's Russia over the Western liberal model are only a consequence of Mishustin's technocratic innovations.
In government, technology is only a means to an end. Mishustin's technology served Putin's purposes well when Mishustin was the head of Russia's Federal Tax Service. The world will soon find out how well this experience serves Putin's purposes. Mishustin's appointment could mark the beginning of a variation on a play that has already been staged in the 21st century. Only this time it will have Russian, not Chinese features.
The New York Times is limited to publishing the opinions of Russian liberals, bloggers and public figures: Marat Gelman, Alexei Venediktov, Vladimir Pastukhov, Ekaterina Shulman, Konstantin Sonin, Alexander Gorbunov, Yuri Saprykin. The general pathos of the publication: Putin goes to bed, just not to leave the political Olympus and at any cost to preserve power and influence.
The Guardian notes that key ministers have retained their posts, the reshuffle is rather formal and serves as a preamble to the same formal referendum in April.
A short note by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is written in the same vein.
The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung is examined in more detail on personalities. The authors, in particular, emphasize that the odious figures that caused controversy in society have been dismissed - Olga Vasilyeva and Vladimir Medinsky, who were responsible, respectively, for education and culture. Kozak and Oreshkin left the government, but remain in the Kremlin. At the same time, the replacement of Siluanov with Belousov as first deputy prime minister is considered very significant - it testifies to Putin's dissatisfaction with the work of the previous government, as evidenced by the resignation of many old cadres, including Vitaly Mutko, co-chairman of the Russian-Swiss economic commission.