Monday, May 28, 2007

#62: Putin's Heir?

Russian journalist Vladimir Soloviev wrote today that the issue of Russia's next president has been solved - it will be the current Vice-Prime Minister, Sergey Ivanov. This ends the battle between the two contenders: Sergey Ivanov and Dmitriy Medvedev, another Vice PM, which lasted for a year and a half. Official Russian media could not cover an event attended by one contender without showing a similar event of the other. It was known in November 2005 that one of these people would succeed Putin, who himself was, as a western newspaper in 2000 wrote, "put in" by late ex-President Boris Yeltsin.

Unfortunately, the idea of a president appointing an heir is taking deeper roots in Russia. Russian people are not being given a genuine choice. The fact that Russia's president is not chosen in the general elections, rather by the incumbent, makes the western countries worry more about Russia and development of democracy in the region. The recent arrest of opposition activists, including world chamption in chess Garry Kasparov, is an indication of how far Russia is away from that path.

And what worries me the most is that events (and methods) in Russia are copied by Central Asian rulers.

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