Eva Vasilevskaya

I am still trying to find more information on the President’s new speech writer, but it is hard to find.  One problem is that Gazprom has been pretty good about updating their website (better than the Kremlin) ever since changing the format.  The other problem is that there just is not a lot of information out there.  I did, however, find this.  According to an article (in Russian only, sorry) in “Агентство Политических Новостей Северо-Запад” or the “Northwest Polytechnic News Agency”: Eva Vasilevskaya’s father is a man named Igor Abramovich Shadkhan.  Shadkhan is a filmmaker with close ties to Putin.  He also supports Scientology, but claims that he is not a member.

If this is true, it only makes the whole switch of Dzhkhan Pollyeva to Eva that much weirder.

I am not sure the website where I found the information is entirely credible, so please keep researching yourselves.

EDIT: At the bottom of APN’s website there is a phrase “Project of the National Strategy Institute”.  The name seemed somewhat familiar, but I could not remember why.  I googled “National Strategy Institute”, and the first website that came up was “The Other Russia”.  No, NSI is not connected to “The Other Russia”, there was an article discussing a seminar that NIS held.  I tried again, “Russian National Strategy Institute”.  This still came up with “The Other Russia”, but it also came up with a couple of Highbeam sites that named Stanislav Belkovsky as President of The National Strategy Institute.  All that to say, check your sources!

Dzhakhan Pollyeva Part 2

Well, Medvedev actually did follow through.  Dzhakhan Pollyeva is no longer the President’s speech writer.  Quite frankly, she was not much of one, and DAM is probably better off without her.  I do not know much about Dzhakhan’s replacement, other than that she seems to be the same person the original rumour believed to be the replacement, Eva Vasilevskaya. The Moscow Times reports: “Vasilevskaya was an aide to Medvedev when he was first deputy prime minister and previously worked in the press office of Gazprom [when Medvedev was there].”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has updated their Russian language website, but Dzhakhan is still listed as “Presidential Aide” with no job description, or even an outline of her responsibilities.  However, if you click on the link “Presidential Speechwriter’s Office” (Референтура Президента, in Russian), Eva’s name is posted.  Her official title is “Chief of the Presidential Speechwriters’ Bureau”.  We’ll see if this switch makes a huge difference.  I rather doubt it will because, once again, all Putinania needs is a warm body.

EDIT: More info on Eva and rumours of a possible reshuffle from FT.