Russian siloviki is not menu item
In preparation for the December legislative elections in Russia, President Putin has replaced the prime minister. Reading about that led me to a BBC analysis article that might be a valuable teaching tool.Putin names next prime minister
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted the resignation of PM Mikhail Fradkov and nominated a financial crime investigator to replace him.
"Victor Zubkov, head of the federal financial monitoring service, is a relative unknown in Russian politics...
"Mr Zubkov is also reported to have close ties to Mr Putin, both men having worked for the St Petersburg city administration."
But this is also part of the run up to the presidential elections next March. (Isn't the timing of these elections a wonderful thing for comparative classes?)
Behind the scenes, of course, there's the insider politics that really matter in Russia. Most of the textbooks I've seen discuss the siloviki, but this article might be a good supplement for students.
Similarly, the profile of Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev published by the BBC last June might hold up as good updating for awhile longer.
Russian ex-spies flex their muscles
"Communist-era secret police became hate figures across much of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War.
"When those regimes unravelled in the late 1980s and early 1990s, people celebrated their demise. Archives were opened, informers were exposed, former dissidents became presidents.
"But in Russia, things turned out differently.
"In March 2000, [Russians] turned not to a dissident writer or activist. They elected a former KGB officer to lead the country.
"As he prepares to leave office next spring, Vladimir Putin enjoys popularity ratings his predecessors could never have dreamed of...
"The secret police under one name or another were a hugely influential force in Russia throughout the Soviet period...
"Many of Mr Putin's former fellow officers have prospered during his tenure.
They are known in Russian today as the siloviki. The name comes from the Russian word sila, meaning "strength" or "power".
"In Soviet times, those who joined the KGB's ranks were in a position of privilege. They were considered reliable enough to see and hear things which the Soviet regime kept from the majority of the population...
"Their varied experience and extensive contacts gave them the qualities they needed to find their way through the chaos and uncertainty of Russia in its immediate post-Soviet years.
"Not only have they survived, they have succeeded. KGB agents, and those from the KGB's main successor agency, the FSB (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, or State Security Service), are among those making millions from Russia's economic boom...
"Many of those now occupying positions of power in the Kremlin, and in the top levels of Russian business - the two often overlap - are believed to have been KGB agents. Their official biographies rarely spell it out, but gaps in individual CVs, or foreign postings during Soviet times, strongly suggest it.
"Olga Kryshtanovskaya, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has studied the country's centres of power since the late 1980s. This is what she sees today.
"'A quarter of the political elite are siloviki,' she says...
"Ms Kryshtanovskaya estimates that when those she describes as "affiliated" - that is, not publicly declared - are taken into account, the figure could be as high as three-quarters.
"One of those who makes no secret of his KGB past is Sergei Ivanov. 'I am proud of it,' he told the BBC's Hardtalk programme last year.
"Mr Ivanov is currently one of Russia's first deputy prime ministers. He is frequently spoken of as a likely successor to Mr Putin.
"The siloviki look set to stay strong."
Russia's Ivanov steps out of shadows
"Among the high-profile speakers at the St Petersburg Economic Forum were the two men currently seen as the frontrunners in the race to become the next Russian president - the first deputy prime ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev...
"The two men are remarkably similar. They are the same age, come from St Petersburg and worked for the Russian intelligence agencies before entering politics..."
See also:
- Russian Presidential Candidates
- Putin Wins Again
- Managed Elections
- Leadership in Russia
- Discouraging Political Competition in Russia
Labels: elections, leadership, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:32 AM
1 Comments:
Nina L. Khrushcheva has written an op-ed essay for Project Syndicate about the personnel changes in the Russian government. Here are more insights about Russian politics and elite recruitment.
Kremlin Musical Chairs
"It’s that time again – Russia’s pre-election season when prime ministers are changed as in a game of musical chairs. The last one seated, it is supposed, will become Russia’s next president.
"As the end of his rule approached, Boris Yeltsin went through at least a half-dozen prime ministers, looking for the one who would ensure the security not only of Russia’s new democracy and market economy, but also of his “family” and the wealth that it had accumulated during his rule. The last man seated then was, of course, Vladimir Putin.
"Now it is Putin’s turn to call the tune, dismissing Mikhail Fradkov and dissolving the government that had served him throughout his second term in order to prepare for the parliamentary elections looming in December and the presidential ballot in March 2008...
"Before Zubkov’s nomination, reports swirled that the next prime minister would become Putin’s presidential successor, with Sergei Ivanov, a current deputy prime minister, dubbed the most likely candidate. But Ivanov, who is perceived as “strong,” would provide unwelcome competition to Putin, who, after all, remains a “strong” president. Had he anointed Ivanov now, Putin’s power would already begin seeping away..."
Nina Khrushcheva, author of the forthcoming Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics, teaches international affairs at The New School in New York and is currently a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. She is also the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev.
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