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Russian Government Dissolved

Quote:

Russia PM goes as Putin dissolves government
By Mike Eckel, AP
Published: 12 September 2007

President Vladimir Putin has dissolved the Russian government on the request of the prime minister, the Kremlin said Wednesday, a major political shake-up ahead of crucial parliamentary and presidential elections.

The dissolution is expected to result in a new head of government, who will be seen as Putin's choice to succeed him after he steps down next spring.

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said he asked for the dissolution because with elections approaching, Putin needed to have a free hand to make decisions, including those concerning appointments.

Putin agreed: "You might be right that we must all think about how to structure the government so that it better suits the pre-election period and prepares the country for what will happen after the parliamentary and presidential elections."

Under the Constitution, Putin now has two weeks to propose a new head of government, which the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, then has a week to vote on. Russian news agencies said Fradkov would serve as acting prime minister until the vote.

The parliamentary elections are scheduled for Dec. 2, followed some three months later by presidential elections.

The newspaper Vedomosti, citing unnamed Kremlin officials, reported Wednesday that Sergei Ivanov, a first deputy prime minister and a leader contender to succeed to Putin, could be appointed prime minister in the near future.

Another first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who is a top executive at natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, is considered the other leading contender.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2954274.ece

I've read this a few times, and I find myself wanting to read up more throughly on recent Russian politics, as apparently I've missed something.

By my understanding, the current PM and Putin wanted a new PM asap? And now Putin has nominated Zubkov, the current financial monitoring member of the Cabinet? I'm reading now that Zubkov workewd closely with Putin when they were both in St. Petersberg. Maybe someone has a better handle on this whole thing and can lay it all out. What's going on, what lead up to it, and what are the ramifications?

Thanks!

Putin's the man!

Time names Putin 'Person of the Year'

Putin, who is barred by Russia's constitution from seeking a third term, recently endorsed protege Dmitry Medvedev's presidential bid, and later said he would accept Medvedev's offer to serve as prime minister if Medvedev is elected in the March 2 election.

Many believe Putin would remain Russia's real leader, regardless of his title, though Putin has said he would not undermine his successor.

Dmitry Medvedev:

Dmitry Medvedev is considered as a moderate liberal pragmatic, able administrator and Putin's loyalist. Following his appointment as First Deputy Prime Minister, some political observers expect him to be nominated as Putin's successor for the 2008 presidential elections.

So, he's endorsed Medvedev, but observers say that Putin will essentially still run the show. Not surprising, I guess. But in terms of ramifications, Russia is rebuilding and will remain a big player in global issues.

As sketchy as Russian democracy is, their circle of influence will grow as their economy does. It is far more robust than you might think. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It sounds like they need to look at their constitution, if the loopholes are that big it is a joke to begin with. But then again who ever thought having a solid constitution would result in what we have had lately. I don't think the founding fathers did.

It's very difficult to separate government and economy. It will be interesting to see what the next few years will bring. For a few years now, Russia's GDP has been growing at nearly double the rate of that of the U.S. This means the economic disparity between the two is shrinking and that Russia will eventually hold more influence over the world economy than they have in the recent past.

Especially now that it looks like the U.S. economy is going through a contraction (the "R" word is popping up more frequently these days), this reduction of economic disparity may only accelerate.