Saturday’s announcement of the scheme to restore Vladimir Putin as president of Russia was about as surprising as April’s announcement of the campaign to reelect Barack Obama as president of the United States.
Actually, the only thing noteworthy about Putin’s announcement is the stupefaction pundits around the world are expressing about the way Russia’s incumbent president, Dmitry Medvedev, not only stepped aside, but publicly endorsed it. This, however, is because they all bought into the ruse of a simmering rivalry that Putin and Medvedev have played out over the past four years – complete with Medvedev publicly chastising Putin for his Soviet-style rhetoric and hinting that he would welcome a challenge from this putative nemesis to take his job.
By contrast, I did not buy into any of it. In fact, here are just a few excerpts from previous commentaries that affirm my informed view that Putin effectively installed Medvedev as nothing more than a bench-warming Constitutional nicety; i.e., to get around the prohibition against any president serving more than two consecutive terms:
On his popularity
The putinization of Russia continues apace and Papa Joe Stalin must be very proud indeed… Putin’s power and influence have become so totalitarian that national polls show Russians have more faith in him than in their Church or any other organ of the state.
(Putin reforming Russia in his own image, The iPINIONS Journal, March 25, 2005)
On his tactics
I coined the term “putinization” to describe Putin’s neo-Stalinist tactics, which were (and are) clearly aimed at neutralizing all political dissent, quashing all civil liberties and making him a latter-day Czar.
(Hail Putin, The iPINIONS Journal, December 3, 2007)
Finally, on his selection of Medvedev
(Please note especially my take on what Medvedev said in his inaugural address about the role Putin would continue to play even during his (Medvedev’s) presidency. Because this belies any subsequent pretense of a rivalry between them and exposes the stupefaction over his endorsement of Putin’s return to the presidency for the willful ignorance it reflects.)
Even though his Stalinist intent to rule Russia for the rest of his life has been self-evident for years, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to bedevil political observers with his Kremlin maneuvers…
The only thing that explains Medvedev’s selection is the fact that he will be even more deferential to Putin than Zubkov – especially on matters of national security and foreign affairs. Although, since Medvedev ran Gazprom, the state gas company that is allegedly the source of so much of Putin’s wealth, this is why Putin may deem it critical for him to be a part of his St Petersburg troika (of Medvedev, Zubkov and Putin) that will rule Russia for the foreseeable future.
At any rate, Medvedev went out of his way during his first televised address yesterday to assure the Russian people (and warn the world?) that Putin shall continue to be the most powerful man in Russia.[Here’s a little of what he said]:
‘Russia has reclaimed its proper place in the world community. Russia has become a different country, stronger and more prosperous… In order to stay on this path, it is not enough to elect a new president who shares this ideology… That is why I find it extremely important for our country to keep Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin at the most important position in the executive power, at the post of the chairman of the government.’
This just happens to coincide with Putin’s reorganization plan. Because, upon accepting the United Russia Party’s ‘invitation’ to become its leader in October, Putin asserted that even though the constitution prevents him from serving a third consecutive term as president, it provides no prohibition against his becoming prime minister – a prospect he declared then as “entirely realistic”.
Well, all indications are that it’s a fait accompli…. Hail Putin!
(Putin taps his protégé, Medvedev, as his successor, The iPINIONS Journal, December 12, 2007)
That said, I feel compelled to point out a chilling contradiction in the way Western leaders, without exception, are greeting Putin’s return as just another confirming instance of Russia’s intent to stay on the path of democracy.
Specifically, the tumult of the Arab Spring has been characterized by these leaders calling on dictators throughout the Arab World, who have ruled their respective countries with an iron fist for decades, to step down. Yet all of them would be hard-pressed to cite what distinguishes the way Putin has ruled Russia (even during the Medvedev interregnum) from the way Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt. After all, Mubarak adhered to constitutional niceties too.
Granted, there’s nothing particularly new about this kind of international double standard. And nothing demonstrates this quite like the black eye America sports for having a solicitous and mutually dependent relationship with communist China on the one hand, while still enforcing a 50-year embargo against communist Cuba on the other.
I just think it’s worth noting that, even though America is the best country in the world in almost every respect, the double standard its embrace of Putin represents explains why increasing numbers of people around the world have just cause to resent, if not to hate, the U.S.A.
Frankly, what makes this embrace so disheartening is that Putin has never made any attempt to disguise his determination to emulate Joseph Stalin – who ruled the old Soviet Union (effectively from 1922-53) in a way that would make even the dictators now withering away in this Arab Spring seem positively Jeffersonian.
NOTE: In keeping with my reference to his St Petersburg troika, Putin announced on Saturday that Medvedev should (i.e. shall) become Russia’s next prime minister – pursuant to what I alluded to above as his master plan to rule Russia for life.
Related commentaries:
Putin reforming Russia…
Hail Putin…
Putin taps protege...
Putin’s master plan to rule for life…