The New Head Of The Presidential Administration Of Ukraine

What You Need To Know: 

Ihor Rainin, Head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration was appointed as the new chief of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.

What was he doing before this appointment? To whom is he connected in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Administration?

Education

National Aerospace N.E.Zhukovskiy University "Kharkov Aviation Institute", 1997, mechanical engineer.

Kharkiv branch of the Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, 2000, Master of Public Administration.

PhD in Public Administration.

Age: 43

Career

Ihor Rainin started his career in civil service in 2002 – in the Main Department of Economy of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, first as Deputy Head, then later promoted to First Deputy Head.

In 2010, after Viktor Yanukovych came to power, he left the Kharkiv Administration and became a member of the Regional Council for the opposition party “Batkivshchyna”. He was engaged in business at the same time. Also, he was Deputy Director of the company "Sintofleks".

He returned to the Regional Administration in March 2014, when pro-Russian rallies were held in Kharkiv.

He was appointed acting Deputy Head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Baluta, and in April became a Deputy.

His functional responsibilities included controlling the work of the Department of Economics and International Relations, the Department of Improvement of the Competitiveness of the Region, the Department of Social Protection of the Population, the Department of Education and Science, the Department of AIC and many others.

Presidential Administration #1

In November, Ihor Rainin was "transferred" to Kyiv to become Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, because Borys Lozhkin, also from Kharkiv, became the head of it.

During these three months, Rainin wasn’t noticed much in public.

In the Administration he was responsible for routine work - workflow and protocols.

On the February 3 rd, 2015 as per Borys Lozhkin’s recommendation, Ihor Rainin was appointed head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.

In Kharkiv they weren’t happy about such an appointment. The reason is that the former opposition politician Rainin did not have a strong team.

The website "Slovo i Dilo" summed up the achievements of Rainin on the anniversary of his governorship. The region commended him and ranked him fourth among all the regions of Ukraine on socio-economic development.

Everybody called him the “compromise candidate” of President Petro Poroshenko and Gennadiy Kernes.

The Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine

Rainin, as the head of Presidential Administration, could be positive because both the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov and President Poroshenko (as Rainin is a very close person to Lozhkin) are loyal to him.

Formally, Borys Lozhkin no longer occupies this position, but according to Petro Poroshenko, he will be an advisor playing a role of mediator between him and business.

It is assumed that the main task of Rainin will be to improve the communication between the Presidential Administration and other administrative bodies.

Rainin is very loyal to the policy of Poroshenko, so he will simply be executing his orders.

"I’m joining the administrative body which functions well. The President of Ukraine set clear goals – launching administrative processes, fighting corruption, the civil service reform and many others. In the Kharkiv region we usually say ‘first action, then talk’. So we’ll be working", he said during his appointment.

Translated by Olga Kuchmagra