As I noted yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin named Deputy Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev, a relative unknown who has never been elected to any office, to succeed him as President of Russia. Given that Medvedev is a Putin appointee, protege, and loyalist, it seemed pretty obvious that the appointment was somehow designed to keep Putin in power.
Today, it became even more obvious when Medvedev announced that he would name Putin Prime Minister upon his election as President:
MOSCOW, Dec. 10 — A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the nation today and declared that he in turn would name Mr. Putin as his prime minister.
The announcement appeared to bring to a close questions about how Mr. Putin intends to wield influence over Russia after his term ends next year. Mr. Putin is barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive term, but he had indicated in recent months that he had no intention of giving up his power when he steps down in the spring.
Mr. Medvedev has no background in the state security services and virtually no power base in the Kremlin, and he is seen here as a relatively weak figure beholden to Mr. Putin. With Mr. Putin as prime minister, it would appear that little will change in who controls Russia.
Well, not exactly. Instead of the Presidency of Russia being an office that holds real power, it will, at least for Medvedev’s time in office, be little more than a figurehead carrying out the will, if not the very instructions, of Prime Minister — dare I say Premier ? — Putin.
While this is something that’s happened in other nations in the past, it would be a new development for Russia:
While Mr. Medvedev is clearly a Putin loyalist, Russia has never had leaders who have wielded decisive authority from the background. Power has traditionally emanated from the office — be that of the czar, the Communist Party general secretary or the Russian president. Whether Mr. Putin would be able to keep control over the government even as Mr. Medvedev retained legal control over its levers is an open question.
Something tells me that Putin won’t have much trouble figuring out how to do that.
