Penza, 24 April 2018. PenzaNews. 74 people including the Minister of Economy of the Penza region, Sergei Kapralov, participated in the first training for presidential personnel reserve, which is also known as "courses for future governors", organized by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) with the support of the Kremlin. This was reported by referring to the final list of attendees available to the agency.
Three participants of the training claimed authenticity of the document featuring names of deputies, senators, representatives of the government, Moscow mayor's office, regions and state-owned companies. RANEPA neither confirmed the authenticity nor denied it.
According to the news agency, "the graduation ceremony" of course participants was held in the Kremlin on Friday, April 20. Diplomas were awarded by the first deputy head of the presidential administration of Russia, Sergei Kirienko.
According to RBC, in the framework of the personnel reserve training, which started in June 2017 and finished in April, candidates for high public offices listened to lectures given by representatives of the Russian political and business elite, jumped into the water from a rock in Sochi, lied down under an armoured troop carrier, competed in boat races as well as studied Chinese philosophy and digital economy in Hong Kong.
Organizers do not disclose according to what criteria future participants of the programme were selected. It is known that eight participants already received new assignments: Dmitry Azarov became the head of the Samara region, Gleb Nikitin – the head of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Stanislav Voskresensky – the Ivanovo region, Alexander Burkov – the Omsk region, Andrei Klychkov – the Orel region, Andrei Travnikov – the Novosibirsk region, Alexander Tsibulsky – Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Artem Zdunov became Prime Minister of Dagestan.
Previously, the agency reported referring to its sources that by the single voting day on September 9 several heads of regions could leave their offices but that was not about mass resignations but rather about rare instances.
