ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the basic contours of Minatom's regional strategy and administrative control. It outlines the strategy, discussing internal inconsistencies that compromised effective policy implementation below the federal level. The chapter describes the political and administrative resources available to the ministry and analyzes the effectiveness by which they were used to secure regional compliance. It examines the variations in Minatom's regional policies and the range of responses that they engendered. In principle, Minatom relied on a set of potent instruments—political, cultural, administrative, and financial—to influence federal policymaking, exercise control over activities and personnel issues at nuclear facilities, and to overcome bureaucratic obstruction within the ministerial hierarchy. A primary source of Minatom's influence at the federal and regional levels stemmed from the leadership's direct access to senior decisionmakers, including the Russian president. Minatom relied on several de facto mechanisms to maintain administrative control over subordinate facilities at the regional level.
