President Medvedev's regalia
It was a year ago today that Dmitry Medvedev came into "possession" of three regalia of presidential power - a special copy of the Constitution, the presidential banner, and the presidential badge. These seemingly ordinary and unshakeable symbols appear to have interesting stories behind them: the closest cousin of the presidential banner - the state flag - was first hoisted over the Kremlin upside down, while the Constitution, it now emerges, is no longer an official symbol of the head of state. On the other hand, Mr Medvedev has made the Internet and latest technology a new kind of presidential symbol.
Constitution with autographs
The Kremlin website, in the section "Symbols of Presidential Power", describes a "specially made single copy of the official text of the Constitution" as one of the formal regalia of the President. It claims this is confirmed by Presidential Decree No. 1138 of August 5, 1996, issued by Boris Yeltsin himself before staging a comeback as head of state. However, while the special Constitution was used at the inauguration of the first President of Russia as decreed, during the inaugurations of Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev it was rather a tribute to tradition.
One of the official symbols is not official at all: a day before the inauguration ceremony on May 7, 2000, President-elect Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 832, confirming that only the presidential banner and presidential badge were the symbols of the head of state, revoking the 1996 decree. And with it went the distinctive status of the special copy of the Constitution. That is to say, starting from 2000 any president entering office can be sworn in on any copy of the Basic Law - be it the special one or one borrowed from a local library. Yet, once in four years, it is this book with a red lizard skin cover lettered in gold and silver that is taken from the President's Kremlin library to be displayed at the event. It has proved immune even to recent amendments on changing the terms of the President and the State Duma. Although on January 10 of this year the President ordered that the amended text of the Constitution be issued within a month, the special copy is still without the amendments. But, as presidential spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told MK, this will not last long - the book will have the required pages replaced and will be bound again.
This reporter has been able to visit the library and see the country's first book with her own eyes. But she could not touch it - library head Natalia Gavrilenko opened the sought pages herself, in white gloves. Although the special copy has no separate security guard to watch over it (because it is in well-protected building No. 14 at the Kremlin), it is under particular care. And just as well - it is the only of its kind in the world. Although there are no guided tours to see the Constitution, it is shown to some guests (staff did not disclose who).
Each new president leaves an autograph in the book after his inauguration. For this purpose a new front page is added every time to the copy. The page is made from wafer-thin high-quality paper and is fastened with ribbons. It bears an image of the Kremlin and the text on it reads that the next President took his oath on it and appended his signature under his seal. There are four such pages now: one signed by Boris Yeltsin, two by Vladimir Putin, and one - the latest - by Dmitry Medvedev.
State symbol goes topsy-turvy
The presidential banner and the state flag are look-alikes. Both are tricolours, only the banner has a state emblem embroidered on it. The banner is hoisted over the Kremlin's building No.1, where the head of state has his office, while the flag waves above building No. 14. One is the President's symbol, the other, the symbol of the state. When the banner over the Kremlin is lowered, this means a change of president. When the state flag is down, that means a change of state. For this reason the preferred time for swapping flags is night. The national tricolour was first unfurled over the Kremlin in darkness, too.
Tricolour flag No. 1 is known to have been raised over the White House in August 1991, on orders of Boris Yeltsin. The Kremlin's current administrator, Viktor Savchenko, the former head of one of the White House departments, recalled how he had quickly to borrow a tricolour from former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Viktor Yaroshenko ("Who is the boss in the Kremlin?", MK, August 9, 2008).
The changeover from the Soviet flag over the Kremlin to the flag of a new Russia was no less dramatic. Mr Savchenko relates that he even had a special notebook with detailed instructions on how to make the change. But a witness to the change of eras in the Kremlin in December 1991, the late Boris Grishchenko, a news agency reporter who spent 15 years in the Kremlin pool, reminisced in his book "A Stranger in the Kremlin", that the Russian Federation spent the first 12 minutes of its existence ... under a foreign flag. "As soon as the wind unfurled the tricolour, one of those standing near the window on the third floor of the main building of the citadel (the Kremlin - MK) swore under his breath," Grishchenko wrote. " ... I did tell the sons of a bitch how to hang. But they would not listen,' said the same voice." In darkness (about eight o'clock in the evening) the strips were difficult to identify, but it emerged that the flag was mounted upside down, which made it the symbol of a different state. The reporter recalled that the workers who were hustled up following the first display of the flag were found "tipsy". "To the demand of their direct boss ‘to immediately set the flag right', they answered with typical working-class frankness: ‘If you care, you go up the roof in rain yourself ... ‘", Mr Grishchenko related. However, the workers agreed at last that in a country which went topsy-turvy at least the flag should be properly hung out.
The current presidential banner appeared seven years later, in a far calmer atmosphere. A five-man team took three months in Yevgeny Grebenyuk's studio outside St Petersburg to produce the presidential symbol. Across the tricolour surface, they embroidered Russia's emblem in gold, attached golden fringe, and secured to the staff a silver shackle on which the names and dates of rule of all the presidents of Russia are now inscribed. Then they crowned the staff with a metal spearhead. It is this flag that is trooped during the inauguration of a new president and then installed in his office for the duration of the term. It is carefully dusted (the banner cannot be laundered), and kept from fading in the sun ... Only replicas are hung out over the Kremlin's building No.1, naturally without the shackle.
In 1998, one such flag cost 170,000 roubles to make. The studio, though, did not bill the customer. Yet even today the manufacture of many carbon copies of the state flag and presidential banner costs the appropriate division of the Administrative Directorate of the President nothing. As Viktor Khrekov, adviser to the head of the Presidential Property Department said, outdoor Kremlin flags are sewn from synthetics at a "local factory". They are changed once a month, or more often, depending on the weather. In the summer, he added, flags wear less and are changed at longer intervals. Annual consumption of presidential banners is greater - on a public holiday such as May 9 or June 12, the symbol of presidential power ought to be replaced with a "fresh" one. The state emblem on this holiday version is embroidered with gold lace, unlike on daily specimens. No fewer than fifteen ordinary state flags are required for one year. Street-worn fabric is never cleaned, but simply replaced with new one, the adviser said.
Order for President
Even if a future President has done nothing for the country to be credited with, during his inauguration he is awarded, so to speak, in advance. The President's regalia is made in the form of an equal-ended cross and chain, and is patterned on the Order of Merit for the Motherland. It was designed in 1994. But owing to an international tradition - to make presidential accessories the main state award - the first regalia was all but sent to the museum. In 1998, the main state decoration was considered to be the Order of St Andrew, not the Order of Merit, and therefore the balance nearly tipped in favour of a new regalia - to correspond to this award.
True, besides being an award, the regalia at once tells the President what he must do while holding the presidential reins: on its reverse side is the motto - "Use, honour and glory". Also attached to the chain are white enamelled plaques with names of those who have already brought honour and glory to Russia - former presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, with their dates of rule.
Like the other presidential regalia, the badge was made on Mr Yeltsin's request. The fact that its chain consists of seventeen separate links has no hidden meaning. It was simply made to fit the broad chest of the first President of Russia, and its measurements were taken from his tailor's dummy. Mr Putin, at his first inauguration in May 2000, merely held the badge in his hands - he must have felt its weight when Mr Yeltsin put it round his shoulders on December 31, 1999. Mr Medvedev, too, did not wear the badge when he took office.
User No.1
In the year since inauguration, Mr Medvedev has in a way expanded his three presidential regalia to four. Now any political watcher in the country knows that Russia's President is a technically-minded guy and never misses an occasion to show off his knowledge of the Internet, including online slang. The first thing Mr Medvedev ordered when moving in was to have several Internet-connected computers installed in his study in the Kremlin (they provide a surprising contrast to classic-type plastic telephones on his desk, with pushbutton keys or blank dialing disks, surviving since Soviet days, I think). The latest models of computers, including notebooks, are also in evidence in his Gorki residence outside Moscow and even on his aircraft. As MK has found out, during his trips the President makes wide use of Internet resources through his notebook.
The head of state is convinced that the future belongs to the World Wide Web. This conviction must have persuaded him to think up new ways of communicating with ordinary people: first, he set up his own video blog on the Kremlin website and then created his own Live Journal community. According to his spokeswoman Natalia Timakova, the two experiences have proved successful - his video blog already has 20,000 registered users and the Live Journal, another 8,000. True, a considerable number of LJ guests fill their comments with complaints. Those who created the community say they did not want to substitute for the Presidential Directorate for Communication and Public Feedback, but serious cases draw the head of state's attention. For example, when he fired Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin, some of the users doubted the wisdom of the step. Right away the President told his press-service to post an extract from the Law On the Police on the website, confirming his right.
MK has also learned that Mr Medvedev begins his mornings by browsing Internet news. The start page on all his computers is the official Kremlin.ru site. It is from there that he makes rounds of popular news sites, occasionally including those of the opposition. The President prefers his own news gathering to digests prepared by staff.
Naturally, the technically savvy President wants his personnel to be up to date, too. There is the special Presidential Council for Information Community Development, and he has several times chaired Cabinet meetings on an E-Government. All presidential rooms are equipped with sophisticated plasma screens and web cameras, which he often uses for video conferencing with governors. There is also a giant wall-to-wall plasma panel in his public reception office in Moscow. During his recent visit there he demonstrated yet another technological achievement: while communicating with people by video, he put electronic signatures on documents by means of the Sympodium interactive pen display (such devices sell in Internet shops at 120,000 roubles to 195,000 roubles a piece). As Ms Timakova told MK, the Presidential Executive Office is now putting the finishing touches to a similar system in the Kremlin - it will enable Mr Medvedev to phrase his requests electronically, using paperless technology.
Surprising as all these gadgets are, the President may not use a cell phone for reasons of his personal safety. So the recent story of a text message reportedly sent by Mr Medvedev to Swedish biathletes is not true - the head of state makes no use of SMS services. On the other hand, under a special decree, he is provided with priority communications facilities "in all places of his permanent and temporary stay, including during trips across the country and abroad". However, just over a year ago, Mr Medvedev was spotted at a business forum in Krasnodar holding an iPhone in his hands (he was then running for the presidency). But his close associates are saying they have not seen the President's iPhone ever since.
By Viktoria Prikhodko
