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
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.
Pour cerner Vladimir Poutine, le véritable maître de la Russie, il faut revenir au XIXe siècle finissant. L'aristocratie russe y traîne sa langueur et, comme dans l'oeuvre de Tchekhov, elle s'interroge sur sa propre vacuité et son incapacité à se satisfaire de ce qu'elle est. Consciente d'appartenir déjà au monde d'hier, elle se maintient dans une indolence cruelle. Nous sommes loin de la société capitaliste ébauchée par Engels et Marx. Vue de l'ouest de l'Europe, c'est une société postféodale qui ne parvient pas à se convaincre du bien-fondé du libéralisme, qu'une insuffisante bourgeoisie industrieuse tente de promouvoir contre l'esprit des aristocrates cultivés et des enfants de serfs incultes.
Just what exactly does Dmitry Medvedev want? Six months into his tenure at the Kremlin, the Russian president's signals are so mixed, he has Western policymakers and diplomats baffled. In speech after speech, to audiences at home and abroad, he has talked forcefully of putting an end to Russia's culture of corruption; diversifying Russia's economy beyond the oil and gas industry; integrating Russia into the world economy; instituting the rule of law; and guaranteeing freedom of speech.
Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia would come out of the current economic downturn "stronger and more competitive." Can the Russian press report that?
Reporting from Moscow -- In a nationally televised show of unruffled resolve, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to protect an increasingly anxious country from a return to economic chaos.
It is easy to be distracted by Vladimir Putin's footwork as he seeks to extend his hold on power in Russia. It would be equally easy to lose sight of Russia's new financial weakness, and how that could undermine his influence, whether as prime minister or as president again.
Russians have begun to feel the chill of the financial crisis, as it triggers layoffs and wage-payment delays reminiscent of the economic collapse in the late 1990s.
Even as Barack Obama faces front-page issues like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, he will still have to find the time and courage to deal with a certain nuclear-armed autocracy that controls much of the world's oil and gas.
The ink had barely dried on the final vote count when the testing of President-elect Barack Obama began. One of the first was by Vladimir Putin's puppet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declaring that if the United States continued with its plan to deploy 10 ABM interceptor missiles into Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, then Russia would move short range missiles into Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic, targeting Europe. Russia's excuse for this threat is that they were forced into it because the U.S. defensive system could be converted to an offensive system, targeting Russia. This is a contrived argument and Mr. Putin knows it is groundless.
Von einer Krise will die russische Regierung nichts hören und nichts lesen. Mit wilder Eile werden umwälzende Verfassungsänderungen durch das Parlament gepeitscht. Auch Journalisten werden an die kurze Leine genommen. Beim Parteitag der Kremlpartei darf niemand aus der Reihe tanzen.
For the first time in eight years, we Americans have a president who is cool. It starts with the Ray-Bans. Ray-Bans are the ultimate cool sunglass brand, evoking memories of the John F. Kennedy presidency, of sunny cruises off Cape Cod on his sloop Victura, with the tame photographers from Life magazine in tow.
Svetlana Bakhmina, a Russian lawyer and mother, has never been involved in politics or public affairs. Yet this ordinary 39-year-old woman has become the famous yet invisible heroine of a drama that is both intensely personal and highly political - and that may have far-reaching effects on Russia's public life.
Il l'avait annoncé la semaine dernière, et c'est virtuellement fait. Dès mardi, le président russe a transmis à la Douma, la chambre basse du parlement, un projet d'amendement constitutionnel visant à faire passer de quatre à six ans la durée du mandat présidentiel et, dès vendredi, ce texte a été adopté en première lecture.
Noch vor dem EU-Russland-Gipfel in Nizza haben die Europäer ihre Suspendierung der Gespräche mit Moskau über einen Grundlagenvertrag aufgehoben. Damit ist die EU von der einzigen entfernt sanktionsähnlichen Maßnahme abgerückt, die sie nach dem Fünf-Tage-Krieg in Georgien ergriffen hatte, um Russland zu bekunden, dass sie seine Gewaltpolitik und die Missachtung der territorialen Integrität Georgiens nicht akzeptieren werde. Zwar hat Russland einer europäischen Vermittlung im Kaukasus zugestimmt und eine EU-Beobachtermission zugelassen. Aber die Interpretation der Abkommen geht weit auseinander; vor allem die Vereinbarung, dass sich die russische Armee auf ihre Ausgangspositionen vor dem Krieg zurückziehen solle, bleibt toter Buchstabe.
Five principles to deal with a paranoid Putinocracy.
After greeting Barack Obama's election with a threat to deploy short-range ballistic missiles near Poland, the Kremlin has revealed a trace of cautious optimism about America's president-elect.
Just in dem Moment, da die EU an den Verhandlungstisch zurückkehren und ein neues Partnerschaftsabkommen vorbereiten will, droht Präsident Dmitrij Medwedjew mit der Stationierung von Kurzstreckenraketen in Kaliningrad. Und kurz vor dem EU-Russland-Gipfel, der heute in Nizza stattfindet, stellt Ministerpräsident Wladimir Putin die geplante Ostseepipeline infrage - ein Projekt, das gerade Deutschland am Herzen liegt.
The question has all but disappeared from Russian discourse after months of feverish debate: Who is in charge, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev?
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threatened to scrap a planned pipeline that would carry Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a high-profile project that has faced stiff opposition in parts of Europe.
V posledních letech se Rusko chovalo jako stále sebevědomější mocnost, znovu odhodlaná se angažovat na mnoha místech zeměkoule a dávající najevo, že bez jejího hlasu se nic neobejde. Bylo to vyvoláno mimo jiné silnou prezidentskou mocí Vladimíra Putina, mimořádně oblíbeného u ruského lidu, a stále rostoucími příjmy ruského státu z vývozu surovin a zbraní. Nakonec se Rusko znovu začalo chovat jako za studené války.
La scène, qui n'a jamais été racontée, se déroule au Kremlin, le 12 août, en début d'après-midi. Nicolas Sarkozy est seul face à Vladimir Poutine et Dimitri Medvedev. Il essaie de convaincre les deux Russes d'arrêter les combats en Géorgie et surtout de ne pas prendre Tbilissi. Il sait qu'une grande partie de l'armée russe veut aller jusqu'au bout et renverser Saakachvili. Comment ? Grâce aux interceptions des services secrets français ! Selon une note de la direction du renseignement militaire à ce sujet, certains responsables de l'état-major à Moscou conseillent à leurs chefs de foncer puisque la voie est libre. Sarkozy sait aussi - ou croit savoir qu'un pouvoir géorgien fantoche a été constitué par le Kremlin et qu'il est prêt à prendre la relève.
Nothing could be more transparent than Vladimir Putin's project to return to the Kremlin. President Medvedev, the protégé who has lived up handsomely to every forecast that he would be his mentor's mouthpiece, submitted a Bill to the Duma yesterday to extend the President's term from four to six years, while still allowing for two consecutive terms. The legislative process has been unaccountably accelerated, so that an idea first floated in a speech last week could be law by Friday, with all three parliamentary readings compressed into one day.
Thank goodness, they might be thinking at the US State Department and the British Foreign Office, for the financial crisis. Were it not for the ever-blacker news about the Western world's economy, another scandal would be vying for the headlines - and one where the blame would be easier to apportion. It concerns our two countries' relations with Russia and the truth about this summer's Georgia-Russia war.
Very few Europeans know the EU has a "security strategy". Adopted five years ago, the document contains threat assessments ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation and organised crime. There are also passages about the need for the EU's neighbours to be well-governed so that problems don't spill over into the area, but nothing very specific.
Vladimir Putin must be given a great deal of credit for his dedication to the rule of law. He has gone to considerable trouble to have his legal fixer, Dmitry Medvedev, come up with the brilliant idea of amending the Russian constitution so the presidency could be extended from four to six years. Harvard Law School, eat your heart out! The amendment concept was introduced during President Medvedev's first state-of-the-nation speech last week.
It didn't take long for Russia to lay down a cold-war-tinged challenge for President-elect Barack Obama. One day after the election, the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, declared that he would put short-range missiles on Russia's border near Poland if the next American leader follows through on President Bush's plans to build a missile defense system in Europe.
Back in August, the conductor Valery Gergiev took the stage in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, and denounced its "monstrous bombardment" by Georgia. Speaking both in Russian and, pointedly for the outside world, in English, he said Georgia had carried out a "huge act of aggression" and praised Russia as a savior. Then Mr. Gergiev - perhaps the world's most famous Ossetian - led the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg in what was billed as a memorial concert for the dead in the five-day battle between the two countries.
If the two men who run Russia want to be seen by the world as democrats and not dictators, they are not doing a good job. On Wednesday, President Dmitri Medvedev announced his intention to amend the Yeltsin-era constitution to extend the presidential term to six years from four, igniting immediate speculation that the move would allow his mentor, Vladimir Putin, to return to the Kremlin for up to 12 years. The term of the Duma, Russia's parliament, would be lengthened as well.
Still Russia's dominant politician, Vladimir Putin can only relish the prospect of a new bout of Russian-US rivalry with American leader-in-waiting Barack Obama, say analysts.
W „Pierwszym kręgu" Sołżenicyna jest scena rozmowy dwóch zeków - Bobynina i Gerasymowicza - o „Rosji, która odchodzi". Ten ostatni wymienia charakterystyczne dla tego kraju typy ludzkie, które zostały zlikwidowane po przejęciu władzy przez komunistów. Konserwatyści, działacze państwowi, domorośli teologowie, raskolnicy, pątnicy z brodą po pas, chłopi powożący trojkami, zuchowaci kozacy i wolni włóczędzy.
There were elaborate explanations yesterday as to why the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, had chosen to greet the election of a liberal to the White House by deploying nuclear missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad. Russia, we were told, was laying down a marker. It was saying: you can not ignore us. Or Medvedev was testing a greenhorn leader to see how he would react. There was every explanation except the obvious one: cause and effect.
London; Washington; and Hanover, N.H - When war erupted in August between Russia and Georgia, it was the European Union (EU) president who achieved a cease-fire agreement. Was this just a lucky break for the EU, or a sign of Europe's strength?
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, broke a taboo on constitutional change yesterday when he asked parliament to extend the presidential term from four to six years - a move that could pave the way for Vladimir Putin to return as head of state for a further 12 years.
Barack Obama's election victory prompted an impressive outpouring of goodwill from around the world yesterday -- but also the first hints of the testing that his running mate, Joseph R. Biden Jr., predicted. Kenya declared a national holiday, Britain's largest-circulation newspaper called Mr. Obama's victory "one giant leap for mankind" and even Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez proposed "new relations between our countries." Then came a Bronx cheer from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who delivered a speech harshly attacking the United States and reiterating threats to deploy new missile systems within range of U.S. NATO allies. It would be up to Mr. Obama, Mr. Medvedev suggested with a typical absence of subtlety, to "make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia."
An article in the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper last week pointed smugly at Americans' purported latent racism, noting the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles' reading of War of the Worlds on the radio. "If on November 4 a black man gets into the White House, it will be no less a miracle than an alien landing on earth."
Two months ago, the United States. and Europe were jolted by a revived Russia. Flush with energy money, Moscow announced that it was back as a world power. Georgia was defeated, Ukraine was fearful, the Eastern Europeans were nervous, and the United States and Western Europeans argued over what to do. Was a new cold war imminent? They needn't have worried.
Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday became the first world leader to throw down a gauntlet to US president-elect Barack Obama, declaring that the Kremlin would station missiles in the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to US plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.
The friend giving me a ride swapped just a couple of grim words with his wife on his cell phone, then turned to me. "They fired her," he said sadly. "There go our plans." The wife, who had enjoyed a cushy bank job, then joined the tens of thousands of Russia's new middle class who have found themselves newly unemployed.
Despite Russia's plunging stock markets, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, like other authoritarian capitalists in China and Venezuela, has at least been comforted by the thought that the financial crisis is a repudiation of the West's brand of free-market capitalism, and a golden opportunity for his country to shine. "Faith in the United States as the leader of the free world and the market economy and trust in Wall Street has been undermined forever," gloated Putin recently. Now, he predicted, Russia, China and India would be the "locomotives of world economic growth."
After the west heaped blame on Russia for the conflict, it ignores new evidence of Georgia's crimes of aggression. So now they tell us. Two months after the brief but bloody war in the Caucasus which was overwhelmingly blamed on Russia by western politicians and media at the time, a serious investigation by the BBC has uncovered a very different story.
From the vantage of a Moscow living room this week, it was easy to believe that the world had been magically beamed back to the worst days of 1962. On Monday, the state-controlled TV stations eagerly showed us a military delegation visiting Cuba in a mission, the first of its kind since Soviet times, to "exchange experience in organizing tactical air defence and in training officers," as the Kremlin put it.
