SAMARA (Realist English). Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, Russia’s youngest regional governor at 36, has announced the elimination of all official adviser positions in the Samara regional government, citing excessive bureaucracy and overlapping roles.
Speaking at a government meeting on October 10, Fedorishchev said the post of “governor’s adviser” would be removed from the official staffing structure.
“There are too many advisers — advisers on oversight, advisers-consultants, public advisers… If I listened to them all, I’d have no time left to work,” Fedorishchev remarked.
The governor said three of twelve advisers would be reassigned to direct assistant roles:
- Sergei Kolotovkin, adviser on special military operation issues;
- Sergei Etus, public adviser on industrial affairs;
- Olga Galtsova, adviser on social policy.
Another public adviser, Kirill Pulver, will head the regional sports organization “Clean Sport.”
Fedorishchev added that participants in the regional military personnel programs “Time of Heroes” and “School of Heroes” — modeled after a federal initiative — would be moved from the category of “public advisers” into the Samara region’s personnel reserve.
“We’ll fix this structure and, except for individual appointments, we’re not touching it again,” the governor concluded.
The announcement came a day after an extraordinary session of the Samara Regional Duma, during which Fedorishchev reportedly threatened to dissolve the legislature over its “inefficiency,” according to Kommersant. The Duma barely reached quorum to vote on his proposed amendments to the regional charter, after 11 deputies skipped the meeting.
The adopted amendments rename vice governors as deputy governors and grant mayors consultative voting rights as members of the regional government.
Despite such assessments, Fedorishchev’s recent moves suggest a drive toward centralization and control — a strategy increasingly characteristic of younger Russian governors navigating political volatility.
