The head of United Russia relinquishes the role of supra-party leader to Dmitry Medvedev.
The Duma is set to discuss the second reading of the 2010 budget next week without having discussed it with the prime minister first. Vladimir Putin now prefers not to publicise his meetings with the parliamentary opposition that he used to hold on such occasions. According to information from NG, the prime minister prefers to keep all contacts with the leaders of the opposition parties private. In late October, he held an unpublicised meeting with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. NG's experts have noted a shift of roles within the ruling tandem; it seems the prime minister has yielded his status of supra-party leader to the president, focusing all of his attention exclusively on United Russia. Putin introduced the tradition of discussing the main parameters of the federal budget with the Duma last autumn when he talked with each of the four parties in parliament before the State Duma considered the government document. By doing this, the prime minister sent the message that in spite of being the leader of United Russia, he had chosen to be above the parties. The opposition was eager to take advantage of this, and they didn't skip a beat in complaining to Putin about his own party. And each and every time, Putin had no choice but to be consoling and reassuring.
He even adhered to his "above the parties" stance last spring when the government was preparing to introduce its anti-crisis programme to the lower house of parliament. In March, he accepted proposals from all the Duma parties and met with their leaders, as well as representatives of NGOs and trade unions. He then personally introduced the anti-crisis measures to the Duma in early April.
But the opposition parties were refused meetings with the prime minister this fall. Instead, representatives of United Russia became rather frequent visitors of Putin's residence. He held a meeting with United Russia's leadership just two weeks ago. Last Friday, he met with Vyacheslav Volodin, Secretary of the Presidium of the UR General Council, who briefed the party leader on how his regional public reception offices were doing.
Make no mistake, the prime minister still has plenty of time to meet with leaders of the opposition parties before the second reading of the budget. Yet, it's too late to make any fundamental amendments to the document. Either way, the Duma opposition parties have still not given up hope. But their purpose is different. The leader of the LDPR in the Duma, Igor Lebedev, expressed concern over the lamentable state of the country's political system: "We have some very serious claims against United Russia, which is chaired by Vladimir Putin. Without a doubt, the second and third readings of the budget will be passed without consulting us. Why bother to discuss it if our opinion hasn't been taken into account for the last 16 years? Why cast pearls before you know who? We're much more alarmed by the political aspect: the rigging of the voting results in the October elections. That's what we'd really like to discuss."
Vadim Solovyov, a Communist Party Duma deputy, had a similar take on the situation: "If such a meeting were held publicly, we would have brought up the issues of the equality of political parties and reform of the electoral system. After all, the prime minister needs to be aware of what his fellow party members are doing in the regions. As it is, they are constantly pulling the wool over his eyes."
Notably, Putin is still meeting with parliamentary opposition leaders behind the scenes. A source close to Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov revealed that the CPRF leader had in fact met with the prime minister - without cameras - in late October. NG's source in the government also indicated that unannounced meetings are scheduled with leader of A Just Russia Sergey Mironov and head of LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
By all appearances, the prime minister is deliberately avoiding public contact with the parliamentary opposition and opting for secret negotiations instead. He's obviously well aware that the leaders of the LDPR, the CPRF and A Just Russia would just publicly complain to him about United Russia's behaviour and the results of October elections. By conducting secret negotiations, Putin is sending a message that he no longer wants to keep up the image of the prime minister who's above the parties. Now, he's positioning himself more as the leader of the parliamentary majority who is interested in only one party - United Russia.
The complete lack of publicity surrounding Putin's contacts with the Duma opposition indicates one other thing as well: the prime minister wants to make sure that the governing party's political rivals can't ride on his coat tails. It's a favourite electoral gimmick of Russian politicians -- banners featuring huge photographs of party leaders together with the president or the prime minister, clearly designed to attest to their warm relationships. More and more, Putin is making United Russia his power base, leaving the status of the supra-party leader to President Dmitry Medvedev. A source close to the Kremlin indicated that the prime minister was doing it quite deliberately. He didn't rule out the possibility of Putin becoming a card-carrying member and finally casting in his lot with the UR within a year's time. Another NG source at the Presidential Staff admitted that the roles within the tandem have changed shape. Now, the head of state quite openly maintains links with the opposition.
Experts think it is entirely possible that Putin's next step might be taking part in the 2011 parliamentary elections as the number one on United Russia's party ticket. United Russia may very well promote him as candidate for president.
Yevgeny Minchenko, Director of the International Political Expert Examination Institute, confirmed that "Putin has recently been distancing himself more and more from other political forces. He is positioning himself more as the leader of the parliamentary majority party, the party with the majority in regional legislatures and a say in appointing governors." In the expert's opinion, the roles within the tandem can now be summed up as follows: "Putin is working with the instruments that he needs. He needs the Party to achieve certain objectives. Medvedev is busy keeping up a dialogue with the broad social strata, other parties and the opposition. Wooing political rivals is simply not the prime minister's job. He's clearly staking out additional points of support to keep anyone from thinking that they could be shifted." The political analyst also noted that if the party becomes the backbone, it is in Putin's best interests to transform it from a conglomerate of various influence groups into a monolith.
Rostislav Turovsky, a political science professor at Moscow University, agreed with his colleague: "The multi-party theme has been handed down to Medvedev. Putin is voluntarily surrendering this role because he doesn't see the point of maintaining dialogue with other structures." According to Turovsky, Putin has taken a step towards creating a so-called German scheme: "The parliamentary majority leader, the head of a party government or chancellor, as he sees himself, or a party president." As NG's interlocutor explained, "It's all quite logical. The next elections will obviously see the party nominate a presidential candidate. Putin himself will either run as United Russia's candidate or propose a different candidate for nomination, but even then he'll dictate his own terms to that candidate."
Elina Bilevskaya