Quiet sufferer (Der Spiegel, Germany)
It took Putin less than three months to reverse the few liberal reforms that Medvedev insisted on.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, at the behest of Putin, turns off those liberal reforms that he advocated as president.
Dmitry Medvedev landed from a helicopter in a military town in the suburbs, on the landing pad waiting for him a car with tinted windows. The Prime Minister himself sat behind the wheel. It probably should have meant: I ask for direction. It was a gesture of a man who wants to prove to his people and himself that he still decides something, despite the fact that last spring he gave way to the presidency of Vladimir Putin without a fight. However, an attempt to demonstrate the power a little later turned into a new humiliation.
Seen in a military town annoyed Medvedev: crumbling facades and pictures of triumph left over from Soviet times. He asked how the reform of the army, initiated by him, and the transfer of the dilapidated housing stock of the military to municipal ownership, was progressing. “Not done,” muttered one of the deputy prime ministers who had arrived with him. In this case, heads should fly, Medvedev responded.
“Then dismiss me,” said a man from his retinue, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Then, for all, he sharply stated to the prime minister: the task was impossible, and the corresponding memo was sent to Medvedev’s office a long time ago.
Replica Serdyukov was an act of open rebellion. The minister showed the head of the government that “he is no longer an authority for him,” said military analyst Alexander Golts.
Thus, the prediction of Igor Yurgens, who was among Medvedev’s closest advisors for a long time, is coming true in connection with the President’s demotion to premiere - say, Putin’s people in the government “tear him to pieces”.
A little more than two months after the castling in the Kremlin - faster than expected - the political weight of the former president has returned to previous levels. But at first, right after he assumed the presidency, this man inspired great hopes to both Russian liberals and the West, since he openly declared a “stagnation” in the country, “corruption in political institutions” and the need to give people freedom and opportunity breathe.
All these were just words, and such politicians as former government adviser Mikhail Delyagin were right. The latter, before others, called the son of a professor from St. Petersburg a “weak personality” without a real will to change. That is why in December 2007, Putin introduced him as his successor. After that, Medvedev appointed him prime minister. Putin didn’t even hang a portrait of the new president in his office; he doesn’t need this, he answered when someone asked the appropriate question.
Now Putin has entered the Kremlin again. It took him less than three months to reverse the few liberal reforms that Medvedev insisted on. Putin did this in a humiliating manner, but the politically castrated prime minister was silent.
Back in May, by order of Putin, Medvedev was elected chairman of the ruling party United Russia, which has an absolute majority in parliament. The Kremlin party, increasingly resembling the former CPSU, urgently pushed through all sorts of repressive bills through the Duma. And Medvedev, too, resigned himself without objection. It seems that the ex-president is ready to go on any betrayal of his own convictions, in order to hold on to the edge of power.
This was most clearly manifested when “United Russia” recently recently encroached on its chairman’s favorite project, the free Internet. As long as his voice means something, the state will not control the Internet, Medvedev emphasized when he was president.
Three months ago, he rejected censorship aspirations as “meaningless”. But on July 11, the parliament passed a new law giving the authorities the right to block access to sites without a court order. Officially, the Kremlin decided to declare war on child pornography. But this law creates an “infrastructure that allows censorship at any time,” stated media expert Ivan Zassoursky. The Russian resource of the network encyclopedia Wikipedia in protest closed at 24 hours. In addition, the protest was also announced by the company that owns the popular search engine Yandex (in May it placed $ 1,3 billion worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange).
Medvedev, who himself writes a blog from time to time, again said nothing. One of his first decisions as prime minister was to provide ministers with iPad tablets. Since then, these devices during meetings of the Cabinet lie on the table, which should emphasize the premier’s modernizing will. In fact, they resemble Medvedev's promises of reform: beautiful, but flat.
As president, Medvedev took human rights activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations in the Kremlin and even weakened the strict legal norms relating to the registration of foundations and associations. However, now he accepts that Putin wants to make life difficult for them: the new law almost equates them to the traitors to the motherland. It obliges the environmental organization Greenpeace, as well as election observers from the Golos organization, to register as “foreign agents” - just because they accept cash assistance from the West. However, being called an “agent” in Russia is almost tantamount to recognizing yourself as a spy.
At a recent parliamentary meeting before the summer break, Putin initiated a tightening of the law softened by his predecessor as recently as December 2011. The norms of the law are directed against "slander" - and especially beat on journalists. Star commentator for Ekho Moskvy radio station Matvey Ganapolsky has already expressed concerns about the upcoming “liquidation of our profession.” Today, Putin has seriously limited, in particular, the right to demonstrate and indefinitely postpone the privatization of state-owned companies that Medvedev promoted.
In addition, he disrupts Medvedev’s plan for the withdrawal of the government apparatus outside the Moscow Ring Road - the idea behind it was that officials would not stand idle in Moscow’s traffic jams, as a result of which they would have more time to work.
But the main thing is that the president practically removed the oil and gas sector from the administration of Medvedev’s government, which accounts for half of budget revenues. From now on, the development of new fields and the choice of foreign partners fall under the purview of the “energy commission”, headed personally by Putin.
In early July, it turned out that Medvedev had failed and in connection with his intention to increase the readiness of the Russians to take responsibility. When the southern Russian town of Krymsk covered the seven-meter flood wave, killing more than 170 people, everything was as usual: the authorities, who had been waiting for instructions from above, did not warn the residents about the danger in time.
Political analysts predict that this autumn in Russia will be hot. After electricity prices, water supply and heating have risen since the beginning of July, discontent grows in the provinces as well. In Moscow, the majority of the population is already opposed to Putin.
No one else wants to pin hopes on Medvedev anymore; instead of sympathy, the country often feels only contempt for him. But the politician, deprived of the presidency, continues to engage in self-torture and remains true to his motto: "My task is to help Putin."
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, at the behest of Putin, turns off those liberal reforms that he advocated as president.
Dmitry Medvedev landed from a helicopter in a military town in the suburbs, on the landing pad waiting for him a car with tinted windows. The Prime Minister himself sat behind the wheel. It probably should have meant: I ask for direction. It was a gesture of a man who wants to prove to his people and himself that he still decides something, despite the fact that last spring he gave way to the presidency of Vladimir Putin without a fight. However, an attempt to demonstrate the power a little later turned into a new humiliation.
Seen in a military town annoyed Medvedev: crumbling facades and pictures of triumph left over from Soviet times. He asked how the reform of the army, initiated by him, and the transfer of the dilapidated housing stock of the military to municipal ownership, was progressing. “Not done,” muttered one of the deputy prime ministers who had arrived with him. In this case, heads should fly, Medvedev responded.
“Then dismiss me,” said a man from his retinue, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Then, for all, he sharply stated to the prime minister: the task was impossible, and the corresponding memo was sent to Medvedev’s office a long time ago.
Replica Serdyukov was an act of open rebellion. The minister showed the head of the government that “he is no longer an authority for him,” said military analyst Alexander Golts.
Thus, the prediction of Igor Yurgens, who was among Medvedev’s closest advisors for a long time, is coming true in connection with the President’s demotion to premiere - say, Putin’s people in the government “tear him to pieces”.
A little more than two months after the castling in the Kremlin - faster than expected - the political weight of the former president has returned to previous levels. But at first, right after he assumed the presidency, this man inspired great hopes to both Russian liberals and the West, since he openly declared a “stagnation” in the country, “corruption in political institutions” and the need to give people freedom and opportunity breathe.
All these were just words, and such politicians as former government adviser Mikhail Delyagin were right. The latter, before others, called the son of a professor from St. Petersburg a “weak personality” without a real will to change. That is why in December 2007, Putin introduced him as his successor. After that, Medvedev appointed him prime minister. Putin didn’t even hang a portrait of the new president in his office; he doesn’t need this, he answered when someone asked the appropriate question.
Now Putin has entered the Kremlin again. It took him less than three months to reverse the few liberal reforms that Medvedev insisted on. Putin did this in a humiliating manner, but the politically castrated prime minister was silent.
Back in May, by order of Putin, Medvedev was elected chairman of the ruling party United Russia, which has an absolute majority in parliament. The Kremlin party, increasingly resembling the former CPSU, urgently pushed through all sorts of repressive bills through the Duma. And Medvedev, too, resigned himself without objection. It seems that the ex-president is ready to go on any betrayal of his own convictions, in order to hold on to the edge of power.
This was most clearly manifested when “United Russia” recently recently encroached on its chairman’s favorite project, the free Internet. As long as his voice means something, the state will not control the Internet, Medvedev emphasized when he was president.
Three months ago, he rejected censorship aspirations as “meaningless”. But on July 11, the parliament passed a new law giving the authorities the right to block access to sites without a court order. Officially, the Kremlin decided to declare war on child pornography. But this law creates an “infrastructure that allows censorship at any time,” stated media expert Ivan Zassoursky. The Russian resource of the network encyclopedia Wikipedia in protest closed at 24 hours. In addition, the protest was also announced by the company that owns the popular search engine Yandex (in May it placed $ 1,3 billion worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange).
Medvedev, who himself writes a blog from time to time, again said nothing. One of his first decisions as prime minister was to provide ministers with iPad tablets. Since then, these devices during meetings of the Cabinet lie on the table, which should emphasize the premier’s modernizing will. In fact, they resemble Medvedev's promises of reform: beautiful, but flat.
As president, Medvedev took human rights activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations in the Kremlin and even weakened the strict legal norms relating to the registration of foundations and associations. However, now he accepts that Putin wants to make life difficult for them: the new law almost equates them to the traitors to the motherland. It obliges the environmental organization Greenpeace, as well as election observers from the Golos organization, to register as “foreign agents” - just because they accept cash assistance from the West. However, being called an “agent” in Russia is almost tantamount to recognizing yourself as a spy.
At a recent parliamentary meeting before the summer break, Putin initiated a tightening of the law softened by his predecessor as recently as December 2011. The norms of the law are directed against "slander" - and especially beat on journalists. Star commentator for Ekho Moskvy radio station Matvey Ganapolsky has already expressed concerns about the upcoming “liquidation of our profession.” Today, Putin has seriously limited, in particular, the right to demonstrate and indefinitely postpone the privatization of state-owned companies that Medvedev promoted.
In addition, he disrupts Medvedev’s plan for the withdrawal of the government apparatus outside the Moscow Ring Road - the idea behind it was that officials would not stand idle in Moscow’s traffic jams, as a result of which they would have more time to work.
But the main thing is that the president practically removed the oil and gas sector from the administration of Medvedev’s government, which accounts for half of budget revenues. From now on, the development of new fields and the choice of foreign partners fall under the purview of the “energy commission”, headed personally by Putin.
In early July, it turned out that Medvedev had failed and in connection with his intention to increase the readiness of the Russians to take responsibility. When the southern Russian town of Krymsk covered the seven-meter flood wave, killing more than 170 people, everything was as usual: the authorities, who had been waiting for instructions from above, did not warn the residents about the danger in time.
Political analysts predict that this autumn in Russia will be hot. After electricity prices, water supply and heating have risen since the beginning of July, discontent grows in the provinces as well. In Moscow, the majority of the population is already opposed to Putin.
No one else wants to pin hopes on Medvedev anymore; instead of sympathy, the country often feels only contempt for him. But the politician, deprived of the presidency, continues to engage in self-torture and remains true to his motto: "My task is to help Putin."
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