VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
First, he showed us how to fish with a naked torso and neutralize a tiger. Now, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is giving us a lesson in Communism 101.
As economic crisis begins to take its toll in the shape of employment and rising inflation, Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, sought to reassure Russians by hosting a live three-hour call-in show on TV yesterday.
He is no longer the President but Vladimir Putin sought to assure Russians that he remained firmly in charge during his annual phone-in with the public yesterday.
Il aidera les retraités, les chômeurs, les petites et les grandes entreprises, il offrira une robe de Cendrillon à une fillette, fera payer à l'Ukraine tout ce qu'elle doit et veillera à ce que le Géorgien Mikhaïl Saakachvili soit bien pendu pour ses «crimes»...
Michael Stuermer's survey begins and ends with what was expected to be a defining moment in Russia's chequered post-Soviet history: the departure of Vladimir Putin from the presidency after two four-year terms, and the ascent to power this spring of his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev. In the event, the closing of one Russian chapter and the opening of another turned out to be so predictable, routine almost, that the overriding impression was of continuity rather than change - which is doubtless how Putin intended it, and the vast majority of Russians, desperate for stability after so much upheaval, hoped it would be.
La Géorgie? Une bonne leçon. Les missiles? Inutiles mais bien pour la Pologne. Poutine? Le bon et le mauvais. Lech Walesa reçoit la «Tribune» l'avant-veille de la cérémonie des 25 ans de son Nobel de la paix.
Rosja, ten kolos na glinianych nogach, który ma przerdzewiałą armię, zdychającą gospodarkę i już dawno przestał być mocarstwem, robi z Unią, co chce
You are millions. We are hordes And hordes and hordes. Try and take us on! Yes, we are Scythians! Aleksandr Blok wrote these lines in January 1918, a few weeks after the Bolsheviks disbanded Russia's first freely elected Parliament, plunging the country into a bloody civil war. Of course Russia has changed significantly since then. And yet the famous poem seems uncannily relevant 90 years later.
In the heat of the Georgia crisis in August, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany flew to Russia to warn about the consequences of renewed militarism. Two days later she was in Georgia, voicing support for the country's eventual entry into NATO. Autumn crept in and passions cooled. The beginning of October found Mrs. Merkel back in Russia, looking on as the German utility E.ON and the Russian state energy giant Gazprom signed a significant deal in St. Petersburg, giving the German firm a stake in the enormous Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field in Siberia. Mrs. Merkel's shifting focus served as a reminder of the pivotal role played by Germany in shaping the West's relationship with Russia.
Readers sometimes complain that newspapers don't publish more cheerful stories. Eager to oblige, I would point out that, in a week of mostly grim tidings, from economic meltdown to terrorist carnage, there's one bright spot. Ahead of the Nato summit, the US government has said that it will no longer demand "fast-track" membership for Georgia and Ukraine. "I am satisfied common sense prevailed," Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, said on Thursday, even if the effect of his words was spoiled slightly by the fact he was in Cuba. The irony passed him by that, if Moscow understandably sees the former Soviet republics as its "near abroad", then that is also how Washington sees Central America and the Caribbean.
Not so long ago, a relatively young, newly elected president of Russia was presented with a proposal to amend the nation's constitution and extend the four-year term of the presidency.
For much of the post-1945 era it was axiomatic that Europe's centre-right parties were hostile to Russia. Charles De Gaulle frightened France by saying the Red Army was ready to strike only the distance of two stages of the Tour de France from French borders. Konrad Adenauer, West Germany's first chancellor, refused to recognise any state that talked with Russia's satellite east of the Berlin Wall. Britain's Margaret Thatcher endorsed the "empire of evil" language about Russia, while Germany's Helmut Kohl faced down huge demonstrations against US missiles aimed to counter Soviet short-range nukes. By contrast, the European left spent much of its time finding excuses for whatever the Kremlin wanted. Today, there has been an odd reversal.
Any international economic crisis afflicts different countries in different ways, but an unfortunate few experience every painful dimension of it. In the current crisis, Russia is confronting virtually all the negatives at once--sharply declining export earnings from energy and metals, over-leveraged corporate balance sheets and a chorus of bailout appeals, a credit crunch and banking failures, a bursting real-estate bubble and mortgage defaults, accelerating capital flight, and unavoidable pressures for devaluation.
Putyin nem gatyázott: nem tudta, hogy pártelnökséggel, miniszterelnökséggel vagy alkotmánymódosítással maradjon hatalmon, így mindhármat megtette. Eközben kissé államosítja a gazdaságot, egyezkedik Obamával és megpróbál Oroszországból ismét világhatalmat faragni.
Putyin hatalmának pillérei.
Depuis l'arrivée au pouvoir de Vladimir Poutine, le contrôle des autorités sur les médias n'a cessé de se renforcer. La crise économique mondiale, qui, contrairement aux premières affirmations du gouvernement, touche de plein fouet la Russie, risque de fournir un nouveau prétexte au groupe dirigeant pour resserrer l'étau autour des quelques îlots de libre expression.
Après avoir ordonné aux médias russes de bannir le terme de "crise", Vladimir Poutine a changé brusquement de ton. D'abord parce qu'il lui était de plus en plus difficile de nier la réalité, à savoir que la Russie n'est pas épargnée par la dépression mondiale, mais aussi, et peut-être surtout, parce que les turbulences économico-financières lui fournissent une excellente occasion d'alourdir l'emprise de l'Etat sur l'économie et la société.
Russia's leaders are emphasizing that they would like to improve ties with the United States under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, expressing some optimism that agreements can be reached on contentious military issues.
Il est de bon ton, dans les salons et les antichambres de ministères, de s'éblouir à la fois des performances de l'économie russe sous le règne de Vladimir Poutine et de l'ordre qui semble régner dans le pays. L'ordre règne aussi à Grozny, les conditions de vie des Russes se sont nettement améliorées à la faveur des revenus du pétrole et d'une loi fiscale efficace. Et nos experts en chambre de conclure: la Russie a retrouvé un Etat fort.
Vladimir Poutine avait peut-être oublié sa calculette, jeudi 20 novembre, au moment de faire un discours promettant aux Russes qu'ils parviendraient à surmonter la crise. Ou alors on n'enseignait pas le calcul à l'école du KGB dans les années 1970.
A confident Vladimir Putin, Russia's Prime Minister and former president, vowed on Thursday to protect his country from a return to economic chaos. After years of comparative stability and rapid economic growth based on high commodity prices, Russia has been hit especially hard by the global economic crisis.
