Ah, the details...
The more things change in Russia, the more they stay the same.I often joked to my students that Russia was transformed by the Soviets. It began as a centralized, autocratic, ideological state and ended up as an ideological, autocratic, centralized state. We could probably add Putin to that list of transformers, but we'd have to account for the Yeltsin years. (How about the joke that it took 70 years for the Russians to prove that communism didn't work, but only 10 years to prove that capitalism doesn't work either.)
New jobs, old faces
"In the first week of Mr Medvedev's presidency, it was Mr Putin who made the headlines... [He] also made several big appointments this week, transferring many of his old subordinates from the Kremlin down the river to the 'White House'.
"One such was to make Igor Sechin one of five deputy prime ministers... Mr Putin has also kept in place his liberal economic team, including Alexei Kudrin, the long-serving finance minister. His first-deputy prime minister is to be Igor Shuvalov, an economically liberal and politically flexible former Kremlin aide..."Mr Putin has also shaken up the siloviki... The head of the Federal Security Bureau... has been... replaced by a younger deputy... Also seemingly sidelined is Viktor Ivanov, a hardline ex-spook who worked closely with Mr Sechin...
"One explanation for reining in the siloviki is that they had become too powerful for Mr Putin's liking. Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who studies the Russian elite, says that Mr Putin is cleansing the siloviki clan and getting rid of those who were equal or even senior to him in the KGB. 'A tsar does not have colleagues, he has subjects,' she says. Hence also the demotion of Sergei Ivanov, a top KGB man and defence minister who was a candidate for the presidency and cut a more independent figure than Mr Medvedev...
"Yet none of these changes, including even the shake-up of the siloviki, alters either the direction of Russia or the political system created by Mr Putin over the past eight years. He is well aware of Russia's colossal corruption, lawlessness and inefficiency; his recent speeches would befit an opposition leader..."
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Labels: change, leadership, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:12 AM
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