VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #0640/01 0760656
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 170656Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC PRIORITY 5458
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2412
INFO RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 4719
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5281

UNCLAS MOSCOW 000640 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FAS FOR OCRA/KUYPERS; OSTA/HAMILTON, HAXTON, 
BEAN; ONA/TING, SALLYARDS 
PASS APHIS MITCHELL 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS 
STATE PASS USTR FOR CHATTIN; HAFNER, KLEIN, MURPHY 
BRUSSELS PASS APHIS/FERNANDEZ 
VIENNA PASS APHIS/OELLERER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD ECON PINR WTO RS
SUBJECT: NEW MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE ANNOUNCED 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Russian President Dimitriy 
Medvedev appointed Elena Skrynnik (Screen-nik) 
as the Minister of Agriculture on March 12, 
2009, succeeding Aleksey Gordeyev, who took 
over as Governor of Voronezh Oblast after serving 
for 10 years as Minister of Agriculture.  Skrynnik, 
a 47-year-old with degrees in medicine and 
economics, is a relative unknown even to many 
agriculture professionals, and has more experience 
in the field of financing than in traditional 
agriculture.  At least in the near-term, she will 
likely follow the current policies of her superiors 
and will not compete with First Deputy Prime 
Minister Zubkov in charting the direction of 
Russia's agricultural policies.  Her views on WTO 
are as yet unclear, but she will have to work hard 
to be any more anti-WTO than her predecessor.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------- 
Skrynnik's Background 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Elena Skrynnik was born in Chelyabinsk 
near the Ural Mountains and graduated from 
Chelyabinsk Medical Institute with a Doctor of 
Medicine degree.  She came to Moscow and was a 
classmate of Aleksey Gordeyev at the Academy of 
National Economy of the Russian Federation from 
where she graduated in 1992 with a PhD in economics. 
Nearly her entire working life has been spent in 
the field of leasing, first in medical equipment in 
the 1990's and then in the agricultural sector 
(machinery, breeding stock, and equipment) since 
¶2001.  Since 2001, she has been the General 
Director of the Russian State Agro-Industrial 
Leasing Company OAO "Rosagroleasing", which has 
been the lead executor of the national priority 
project for Russian agricultural development. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Financing of Rosagroleasing under the 
National Priority Project in agriculture from 
2006-2008 totaled 24 billion rubles (then about 
USD 840 million), of which 3 billion rubles were 
used for financing of machinery needed by the 
livestock sector and 9 billion rubles for financing 
brood livestock needed by the domestic beef and 
dairy sectors.  During that time, Rosagroleasing 
took orders from its network of dealers throughout 
the country to purchase agricultural machinery such 
as tractors and combines, equipment for the 
agroindustrial complex, along with breeding stock 
which was then re-sold to Russian buyers.  Often, 
Rosagroleasing was the monopoly purchaser of these 
products and rural buyers spent more in payments of 
principal and interest to buy the products through 
Rosagroleasing than they would have through 
commercial purchases and commercial financing, 
suggesting there was enough slop in the system to 
cover corrupt payments.  Nevertheless, farmers had 
to cooperate with Rosagroleasing since they 
represented the Ministry of Agriculture and the 
National Agricultural Priority Program funds passed 
through Rosagroleasing.  Ms. Skrynnik was an active 
leader in this enterprise; President Medvedev said 
he met her in 2005 when he started overseeing the 
four National Priority Projects. First Deputy Prime 
Minister Zubkov, who is the current Chairman of the 
Board of Directors of Rosagroleasing, has also had 
the opportunity to work closely with Ms. Skrynnik, 
since she also served on the Rosagroleasing Board 
in addition to being its CEO. 
 
----------------------- 
Events In the Past Week 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) On the eve of the Women's Day national 
holiday on March 6, 2009, President Medvedev 
invited a number of prominent women to his 
residence and made comments which were covered 
widely in the media.  He noted that there were only 
two women ministers, and that the country needs to 
bring more women to the government. Most analysts 
consider that policy to be a key motivation for the 
appointment.  Skrynnik's name was not on Medvedev's 
"Golden 100" list, leading some to conclude that it 
was her connections to influential power brokers 
that made the difference in securing the 
appointment. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Even though Skrynnik is on the United 
Russia Supreme Council, it was Communist Deputy 
Alexander Shirshov who made the motion in the State 
Duma on Wednesday, March 11 that Skrynnik be 
appointed Minister of Agriculture.  In a strange 
twist, United Russia deputies rejected that motion, 
but the following day President Medvedev announced 
her selection, suggesting that this was a decision 
from the very top that was not vetted with the 
United Russia Party members in the Duma.  Her 
selection evidently pleased Shirshov, who is quoted 
in the Moscow Times of March 13 as saying the 
sector needs an urgent rescue.  "We need a 
breakthrough right now, so we need a person with 
energy rather than a bureaucrat." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Skrynnik was daring in her first press 
conference as the Agriculture Minister on Friday, 
March 13, commenting that, "We will be examining 
the effectiveness of work of the staff.  Those, who 
do their duties professionally, will keep working. 
Those who do not understand what should be done, 
will not continue to work."  First Deputy Prime 
Minister Zubkov echoed this sentiment when he 
presented her to the Agriculture Ministry and 
commented on her strong management skills and 
likelihood that she would bring with her some of 
her trusted team from Rosagroleasing.  It is not 
clear whether her appointment will lead to any 
significant changes at the Veterinary and 
Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS). 
Although Sergey Dankvert, Head of VPSS, reports 
to the Ag Minister according to the organizational 
chart of the Ministry of Agriculture, in reality he 
appears to report directly to the Kremlin.  During 
her press conference she also confirmed that her 
immediate priority would be determining grain 
intervention prices (the guaranteed minimum price), 
establishing control over fuel prices for farmers 
and expanding opportunities for farm credit. 
 
----------------------------- 
Policy and Trade Implications 
----------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Based on conversations with officials and 
employees in the Ministry of Agriculture, the 
selection of Ms. Skrynnik was a shock to nearly 
everyone at the ministry.  Many are unhappy as she 
was not among the leading contenders and is 
considered an outsider to the field of agriculture. 
An official who knows her well confirmed that she 
was selected because she will not compete with 
Zubkov in setting policy directions.  She is known 
to be obedient to her superiors and is expected to 
use her managerial energies to help implement 
current programs.  She is not considered a reformer, 
as she worked well for many years in the cozy and 
often corrupt style of Russian business at 
Rosagroleasing.  A manager of a large-scale, 
private agricultural company in southern Russia 
told us that Skrynnik is a very competent manager 
and is able to make quick decisions.  But he also 
sees her as implementing policies that would mostly 
be imposed from above. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Post does not expect that Skrynnik will be 
as vocally outspoken or as independently critical 
of WTO accession as was Minister Gordeyev; she will 
more likely follow the Kremlin's line, which 
remains rhetorically pro-WTO. There are some who 
have noted that she is not overly friendly toward 
the United States in general.  We will see whether 
she will take a lead from higher authorities in her 
willingness to engage cooperatively with us now as 
minister. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Regarding other international matters, 
Ms. Skrynnik has at least the personal experience 
of purchasing foreign equipment and technology and 
understands its usefulness in modernizing the 
agricultural and agro-industrial sectors.  For 
example, John Deere representatives in Russia 
worked closely with her four years ago and arranged 
a credit facility between Rosagroleasing and the 
Export-Import Bank.  At the very last moment, 
Rosagroleasing was blocked from using the facility 
by the actions of other ministers in the government. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Another manager for one of the U.S. 
agriculture equipment manufacturers in Russia told 
us that Skrynnik's selection was a complete 
surprise.  He noted he had met her several times, 
and that she struck him as more of a businesswoman 
than a bureaucrat.  He expressed some hope that she 
would listen to the needs of farmers and 
agricultural equipment suppliers, especially 
regarding financing for foreign agricultural 
equipment. 
 
¶11. (SBU) In past years, Ms. Skrynnik looked 
primarily to Europe for cattle purchases to upgrade 
the productivity of both the beef and dairy sectors. 
After several Russian teams visited the United 
States in and reported back about the huge 
achievements of the U.S. dairy and beef sectors, 
Rosagroleasing bought 300 head of cattle from the 
United States, with plans to purchase at least 
2,000 more in the coming months. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) With the support of President Medvedev, 
Elena Skrynnik has received a huge promotion from 
her position at Rosagroleasing to become the first 
woman to hold the position of Minister of 
Agriculture. She will need all of her energy, 
expertise, and managerial skills to help transform 
the Russian agricultural sector, which has 
significant, fundamental problems.  During this 
period of economic crisis, the Kremlin seems to 
have chosen a person who will follow existing 
policies and attempt to make them successful rather 
than someone who will lead Russian Agriculture in a 
new direction.  After the ten-year tenure of the 
anti-trade, anti-WTO Minister Gordeyev, we expect 
Skrynnik will be more compliant, and less outspoken 
than Gordeyev, but not necessarily any more 
supportive of WTO accession. 
 
BEYRLE