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Russia’s elections are carefully orchestrated. Sergei Kiriyenko makes sure of that. He is considered a possible successor to Putin.
Last week the international youth festival in Sochi ended. The bombastic closing ceremony was a main topic on Russian state television. The festival was organized by Sergei Kiriyenko, a short, inconspicuous man with a bald head and glasses.
Powerful political leader
But appearances are deceptive: Kiriyenko is Putin’s domestic policy chief. He ensures that the elections in Russia are carried out in the Kremlin’s interests. Kiriyenko controls the parties and curates the candidate lists. And he organizes events like the festival, which presents Putin’s Russia as a place of longing for young people from all over the world.
Kiriyenko is making the most of his promotion to political chief in the Kremlin. He has continually expanded his sphere of influence: his people spread Putin’s state ideology at universities and they also oversee propaganda on the Internet. Kiriyenko’s son is even the CEO of the Russian Facebook, Vkontakte.
“The right people in the right position can solve any task,” said Kiriyenko in 2018 about one of his projects, the “Leader of Russia” leadership school. He seems to have taken this to heart: through his office he runs a network of elite schools, and many graduates then become top civil servants. In this way, Kiriyenko channels loyal followers into every area of the Russian state.
Governor in Donbass
But his most important career step was his appointment as governor of occupied eastern Ukraine. There he organized the sham referendums with which the Kremlin wanted to cover up the illegal annexation and made dramatic videos of his visits to the front.
So far, Kiriyenko has operated skillfully in Putin’s system of competing elites from business, military and secret service. But since the war, power in the state has been increasingly concentrated in Putin’s person. Thanks to his role in Ukraine, Kiriyenko now has direct access to the most important resource in Russian politics: Putin’s attention.
Kiriyenko, who previously had little interest in foreign policy, is now adopting Putin’s imperial rhetoric. The people of Donbass have had to defend their right to speak Russian for years, he said in a speech in occupied Mariupol. In some cases, Kiriyenko also gives ideas that Putin then adopts himself.
The loyal technocrat is said to have ambitions to succeed Putin. There is speculation that he wants to move to a quieter position after the elections – but retain control of his network by appointing a loyal successor as political leader in the Kremlin. Whether he is allowed to do this also depends on the elections – whether Putin receives the desired 80 percent of the vote. At least for Sergei Kiriyenko, these elections could turn out to be a tough one.