GLAMOR OF BEING HEIRLESS AND MISERY OF HERITANCE
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 12 2007

Not only it is already clear who Putin’s heir will be but also what
Putin will be doing after leaving the office of president. As it
could be expected, the Russian president will be prime minister.

There are all the necessary preconditions. Thanks to Putin the Yedinaya
Rossia Party got 70 percent of parliament seats in the election to the
Duma, and the likely presidential candidate Dmitry Medvedev asked Putin
to become prime minister in case he wins the election. The Russian
writer said you cannot perceive Russia with logic. For Putin, these
words are more than descriptive. Vladimir Vladimirovich has a high
rating in Russia, therefore he seems to be a condensed embodiment of
Russia, the zip version of Russia, the developed IT societies would
put it.

>From the beginning the activities of this politician were not subject
to good sense. Nobody expected that Yeltzin would start celebrating
New Year earlier on December 31, and would address people on TV and
introduce his standby to the nation. Although it is possible that it
was the only sober move by Yeltzin. However, good sense has nothing
to do with this case because in the case of Yeltzin it has never
been below 40 degrees, therefore it is difficult to refer to his
decisions made at lower degrees as decisions made in good sense. The
unpredictable political child Putin’s presidency was marked by
unpredictable moves, including the issue of the heir. He seemed to
make fun of the world by making it nervous. Now it is difficult to
believe that Medvedev is the end, for Putin’s political fate was his
unpredictability. Meanwhile, there are three months to go before the
presidential election but he has made the name of the heir known. If
he makes the name of the heir known, he becomes predictable. It may
mean that Putin is running out of imagination.

Consequently, if no more evidence, as lawyers would put it, regarding
the presidential election comes, it means Putin’s administration is
gradually approaching its sunset. And it is possible that this feeling
was the reason why the Russian government with control over the entire
information resource and a popular rating of 70-80 percent was sent
into a panic by Garry Kasparov’s walkouts and demonstrations and used
violence to prevent them. Besides, it should not be ruled out that this
feeling of sunset made Putin shift from unpredictability to medium-term
predictability. For the Russian president had stated two or three
months ago there would be no heir, there would be several candidates
who would run for the post of president. It meant that Putin wants to
keep the issue of president burning till the end, thereby maintaining
his influence. Recently, however, a heated home political argument was
underway in Russia, and it had escalated into a war among the special
services. To prevent the structure of the pyramid from being shattered
Putin decided to put an end to the intrigue and make clear three months
before the election who his favorite son is. However, it should not be
ruled out that the "heir" operation has just been launched, and more
sons of Lieutenant Schmidt are going to emerge. For instance, Medvedev
offers the post of prime minister to Putin in return for the post of
president. However, we should not rule out the option of another one,
say Sergey Ivanov who was believed to be the likely heir to think
of a higher post-presidential status for Putin and get a chance to
run in the election. After all, the idea of setting up an institute
of the "leader of the nation" and placing Putin in charge of it was
launched hardly a few weeks ago. Or Prime Minister Zubkov may think
of a more stable and secure post-presidency for Putin and become one
of the heirs. After all, when Putin announced there would be no heir
but several candidates, he reserved room for him to support everyone,
that is to welcome the participation of all of them. Especially that
thereby he will show to the West that the government in Russia is not
changed by Tsar Putin like CNN had headlined its special report but by
competition. Hence, by depriving Medvedev of the opportunity to think
and running out of imagination, Putin seems to have left it up to the
elite of Russia to think and to imagine. However, thinking elite is
something unprecedented for Russia. The tsar has always thought, and
if the tsar thought, everything was OK, if the tsar stopped thinking,
both the country and the tsar appeared in a difficult state.