by John M. Curtis
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Copyright Octorber 2, 2007
All Rights Reserved.

onfirming his stranglehold on the former Soviet Union, 54-year-old Russian President Vladimir V. Putin agreed to step down as president and trade places with his handpicked successor Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. For more than year, speculation hinted Putin would not, as mandated by the Russian constitution, step down from the presidency but instead found a clever way to anoint himself as Russia's next czar. Speaking at the Kremlin-controlled United Russia Party, Putin revealed his intent to run at the top of the ticket for prime minister. Largely a ceremonial post today, Putin plans to transform power away from the presidency to the prime minister, in an effort to regain control of the Russian Federation. Putin said that Russia needs a “decent, competent, effective, modern person with whom it would be possible to work in tandem” with the next president.

      Since taking over Dec. 31, 1999 as acting president from the late Boris Yeltsin, Putin officially assumed office May 7, 2000, after winning an election in which he was the only viable candidate. No other candidate had access to Pravada, Russia's leading newspaper, or any other media outlet, guaranteeing him the victory. When he runs for prime minister, Putin will have the same PR advantage, eclipsing other candidates, including former international chess champion Garry Kasparov. Should Putin run for prime minister, he's all but assured the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, will rubber stamp the two-thirds vote needed to amend the constitution. Putin has jailed, exiled or persecuted virtually all powerful media and business figures opposing his tyrannical control. All dissent has been systematically sabotaged, dismantling Russia's free press and exiling or jailing Russia's oligarchs.

      Former oligarch and head of Yukos, Russia's biggest oil conglomerate, a former rival presidential candidate, Mikhail Khodorkovsky sits in a Siberian prison charged with subversion and income tax evasion. Putin now plans to exert power inside the Duma to amend the Russian constitution, allowing him more power than the president, typical of most parliamentary systems. “The most logical way for Putin's team to fulfill its main goal—to step down but stay in power—is to change the constitution,” said Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, discussing Putin's strategy for holding onto power. “The president would become a decorative figure,” attesting to the very real possibility that Putin plans to hijack what's left of Russian “democracy.” Russia's long history of dictatorship assures that most rank-and-file Russians have no problem with a benevolent dictator like Putin.

      Former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov called Putin's move “the antidemocratic and anticonstitutional nature of this whole electoral process.” If Kasparv shoots off his mouth, he'll wind up like Khodorkovsky sipping fish soup in Siberia. Putin's strong support inside the Kremlin guarantees he'll be able to pull off the constitutional reforms needed to shift power from president to the prime minister. Chief editor of Russia's Ekho Moskvy Radio Alexi Venediktov sees amending the Russian constitution as fruitless, since Putin already exerts Czar or Soviet-like control. “In Russia—as before—a regime of personal power has been established. The power of one person, Vladimir Vladimoirovich Putin, and whether he is called president or prime minister,” said Venddiktov, convinced that Putin intends to wield power into the foreseeable future.

      Under the Russian constitution, prime minister has no term limits, in effect granting indefinite power. Once the Duma amends the constitution, granting the prime minister more power than the president, Putin will have supreme authority without time limits. Switching to premier gives Putin limitless options to control the Russian government. “There will be a new center of influence outside the Kremlin,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, warning that Putin sets himself up to be the next Soviet-style premier or Czar. Nominating virtual unknown Viktor Zubkov assures that Putin faces no opposition to pulling strings behind the Russian government. Without a free press and with political opponents either exiled or prosecuted, there's little opposition to Putin's new plan to install Zubkov as president. Putin already showed Kasparov who's the real chess master of Russian politics.

      For six years, President George W. Bush has said virtually nothing about Putin's blatant assault on Russia's democratic institutions. One by one, he's watched beloved Russian journalists gunned down in broad daylight and potential whistleblowers poisoned with radioactive isotopes in London. When former KGB agent Andrei Litvinenko suffered an agonizing death, it became clear that Putin would stop at nothing to cover-up his government's role in silencing the free press. Russian authorities had to muzzle Litvinenko who was close to naming the FSB's [the old KGB] role in murdering beloved Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Putin for a political hit. Instead of inviting Russia to the G-8 or possibly NATO, Western powers must openly protest and take a stand on Putin's egregious assault on Russia's fledgling democracy.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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