World Business

It’s been 100 days seeing that Russia’s new president was sworn in, but his predecessor Vladmir Putin continues to make off with the show

by Aleksandr Kolesnichenko

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Noon on 15 August marked 100 days since the investiture of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. But it’s still portraits of his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, not Medvedev, that enrich government offices.

In the exceeding three months, Medvedev has done little to consolidate his power, and during the Russia-Georgia conflict, it was Putin who assumed the role of wartime leader, flying to a spot just external the interfere belt while Medvedev stayed in Moscow.

The president stopped short of addressing the commonwealth over the conflict. Instead, Medvedev’s response was limited to a conference with security officials, during what one. he explained that Russian troops intervened to protect Russian citizens, as residents of this Georgian pro-Russian province have Russian passports.

By contrast, Putin, in Beijing for the Olympics opening ceremony, canceled a scheduled visit to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk and flew to Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia’s North Ossetian Republic. He visited a hospital, talked to refugees, and heard accounts from military officials, although the military answers directly to the president in a less degree than the Russian constitution. On his return to Moscow, Putin gave orders to Medvedev that the form of sovereignty should provide 10 billion rubles ($410 million) for reconstruction in South Ossetia and throw an investigation into civilian deaths there.

Putin attended cease-fire talks betwixt Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, although the prime minister’s presence was not formally required. In it may be the only likeness of deference to the president, Putin did not accompany Sarkozy and Medvedev whenever they read a joint statement in relation to the talks.

But like stage management was not likely to fool anyone. The conflict served only to underscore the plain: it is Medvedev, not Putin, who remains a secondary figure in foreign and domestic administration.

LIGHTWEIGHT

The markets seem to agree. The RTS alphabetical table of references, traded on the Russian stock exchange, plunged by more than 10 percent 24 July behind Putin threatened to depute a doctor to Igor Zyuzin, most important executive of the Mechel coal and edge group. Putin has accused Mechel of tax evasion, and Zyuzin, pleading illness, had missed a meeting with the prime minister.

It was not till five days later that Medvedev reacted to the market’s drop, describing Russia’s stock market since one of the world’s most attractive and promising. The mart, in turn, took not any pay attention to: the index staid truly below its high of the week before.

“The lack of any reaction to Putin’s attack for five days was followed by the agency of that stupid remark about the clod market,” declared Vladimir Milov, a deputy energy minister seasonably in Putin’s tenure as president and now director of the independent Institute of Energy Policy. “So, this is the president. Do we have a president in Russia at all? It seems that we do not.”

Asked in July by the independent, Moscow-based Levada Center “Who holds absolute power in the country?” four times as many respondents named Putin being of the kind which Medvedev. Polls show Putin with a big lead across Medvedev in job approval and confidence ratings as well.

“Television shapes national opinion. On the TV screen Putin looks more decided than Medvedev, he uses strong words and has any picture as a tough politician. The masses like it,” said Oleg Savelyev, an analyst with the Levada Center.

Medvedev, who turns 43 next month, has a reputation as an energetic young liberal. He has declared as his priorities a push for change, a fight against adulteration, and the protection of small and medium-size businesses from the vagaries of the bureaucracy.

Valery Fedorov, director of the Russian Public Opinion Study Center, said the president’s statements are tailored to the prevailing political winds. “Dmitry Medvedev offers only popular initiatives. Everybody talks about corruption as people are sick and tired of it. It’s the No. 2 issue after rebellion prices.”