By Ekaterina Tesemnikova, exclusively to VK
A day after the presidential election took place in Russia, acting President Medvedev made an interesting move in the area of personnel policy: he appointed Konstantin Kosachev a special presidential envoy for CIS connections and the head of the ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ organization (The Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation), which is considered to be Medvedev’s personal project. Koschev is well known to his foreign colleagues as a former head of the Russian delegation to the European Council Parliamentary Assembly. Experts consider him to be an experienced politician, but they point out that he didn’t work in the area of relations with the "near abroad" before.
Konstantin Kosachev is 49, he comes from a family of diplomats. He spent 8 years in Sweden, where he went to elementary school. Konstantin graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1984. After the collapse of the USSR he fulfilled his childhood dream – to return to Stockholm and work at Russian Embassy there. However, after having worked abroad for some time, he had to acknowledge that his childhood illusions were out of sinc with reality and the world has quite an ambiguous opinion about his Motherland. According to him, harsh stereotypes about Russia today are the result of the impenetrable ‘iron curtain’ that created a number of myths depicting Russia as an authoritarian state. But it is not only the West that is a hostage to these myths – according to Kosachev, the failed liberal reforms of the early 90s are due to the false notion that if Russia copies the European model all will become well here in the blink of an eye. However, the budgetary policy worked out by the International Bank and Monetary Fond resulted in the economic collapse for Russia. “We need our own, exclusive path of development," Kosachev says, "and we are on this path now”.
After returning to Russia at the end of the 1990s, Kosachev became an aide of the PM under Kiriyenko, Primakov and Stepashin. In late 1999 he started his parliamentary career: he was vice-chairman of the Parliamentary commission for Yugoslavian aid in the Third State Duma and worked on a number of international treaties, such as START. In the Fourth and Fifth Dumas Kosachev headed the Parliamentary Committee for international affairs. While occupying this office (as well as that of the head of the Russian delegation to the European Council Parliamentary Assembly) he gave pretty harsh assessments of not only global developments, but also the events that took place in Georgia and Transdniestria. So it isn’t entirely correct to say that the new head of the ‘Rossotrunichestvo’ is totally alien to the problems of post-Soviet space.
On February 29, during a ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ session, Konstantin Kosachev voiced an interesting opinion: to implement the method of ‘soft force’:that Russia doesn’t need to be stronger or wealthier. “Our resources are vast. We have a lot to be proud of and we should demonstrate it to the world”.
A few days later President Medvedev invited Kosachev to take up CIS affairs and expressed his confidence in Kosachev’s success. Medvedev also said that he hopes that Kosachev will be able to take up not only political issues but humanitarian projects as well, as they are of vital importance for Russia’s relation with the ex-Soviet republics.
Kosachev was well prepared for the meeting and immediately drew up a work plan: according to him, the most vital problem for now is creating a network of Russian scientific and educational centers in the CIS counties. Kosachev believes that the Russian language is a basis for integration and common cultural and information space formation. An important place in the new strategy of the ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ agency will also be attributed to interaction with non-governmental organizations and religious associations in Russia as well as abroad. Kosachev also plans to promote humanitarian and cultural ties with the Russian diaspora. According to him, humanitarian cooperation is the best way to overcome tensions existing between certain states.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that now brand-new approaches will be implemented by an agency that was initially designed as an analogue to the American USAID, which for now is far more influential than the Russian organization. However, one shouldn’t forget that USAID has existed for half a century, while ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ is only 3 years old. It is still possible, though, that the talented Mr Kosachev will be able to approach the initial design.
