Stormbringer
The Brick and The Rose
Operation Successor
Since President Putin's re-election in 2004 rumors have been spreading about the possibility of amending the Russian Constitution to grant Putin the ability to stay on for another term. President Putin repeatedly denied that he wants another term, but as the 2008 election aproached a number of legislators submitted a proposal to amend the Constitution. All eyes were on President Putin as some pressured the popular President to stay on for another term while others raised concerns about the direction in which Russian democracy is heading. Eventually President Putin announced in late 2007 that he would not endorse the amendment and would not stand for a third term.
That however left the question open - who will be Russia's president after Putin steps down in 2008? A number of candidates jumped on the opportunity to run in the election, but the reality was such that there was only one real candidate - the man Putin would designate as his successor. The right wing democratic opposition charged that Putin had stifled democracy while the left wing socialists and communits claimed he had not done enough for the people, but at the end of the day President Putin's approval raitings were above 80%, and the country was ready to vote for whoever Mr. Putin would point to.
As early as 2006 two clear front runners emerged in the race to succeed President Putin. At the same time in March of 2006 Dmitry Medvedev, President's Chief of Staff, and Sergey Ivanov, Defense Minister, were both promoted to be Deputy Prime Ministers. Since then both have tried hard to gather as much media and popular attention, and both have succeeded. Sergey Ivanov has pushed hard for military reform and deployment of new Topol-M ballistic missiles, but his conflict with senior military officials eventually slowed him down.
Dmitry Medvedev on the other hand was much more succesful. He was placed in charge of Russia's "national projects" and due to high oil prices the government was able to succeed and even go beyond in some areas of the projects. In 2007 he led the Russian delegation to the World Economic Forum where he announced that by the end of 2008 Russia will likley become the top oil producer in the World and that economic growith is expected to top 8%.
A number of other candidates were explored by Putin, most important out of them was Dmitry Kozak, the Presidential Envoy to the Southern District, but after much intrigue and scheming he chose not to persue the presidency. As 2007 rolled around and Parliamentary elections drew close it appeared that Medvedev would be the next president.
As voters went to the polls in 2007 to elect a new legislature both President Putin and Dmitry Medvedev threw their full support behind the governing United Russia party. The outcome was never in doubt, and the only question remained: what other partied would be able to gain the necessary 7% of the vote to make it into the Duma?
Outcome of the vote:
United Russia (centrist, pro-Putin) - 49% of the vote, 235 seats
Communist Party of Russia (communist) - 19% of the vote, 91 seats
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (extreme nationalist) - 11% of the vote, 53 seats
Fair Russia (left-wing, pro-Putin) - 8% of the vote, 38 seats
Yabloko/Union of Right Forces (right-wing opposition) - 7% of the vote, 33 seats
Agrarian Party of Russia (agrarian communist) - 3% of the vote
Other Parties - 3% of the vote
The new Duma resembled the old one almost identically, except instead of a nationalist Rodina party that ceased to exist in 2006 Fair Russia and Yabloko/URF picked up seats. If it was indeed "time for change" like the opposition claimed, the average Russian did not realize it.
Following the elections Mr. Putin publically announced he would not run for President and endorsed Dmitry Medvedev for the job. As 2007 came to a close it seemed like Russia would continue on the same path it had followed until now.
Presidential elections were scheduled for March of 2008, and as the campaigns got under way a number of other candidates declared their candidacy. Genady Zyuganov, the Communist leader who narrowly lost to President Yeltsin in 1996 was nominated by his party, and the ultra-nationalist Zhirinovsky ran on the LDPR ticket. Mikhail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister tried to rally the right-wing opposition groups around him, but in the end each major party in the opposition camp nominated its own candidate, and none of them managed to secure a significant amount of votes. On March 1st 2008 Dmitry Medvedev, the successor to President Putin was elected as President of Russia with over 81% of the votes.
Who is Mr. Medvedev?
Dmitry Medvedev entered Russian politics in 1999 when he was brought to Moscow by then-Prime Minister Putin and apointed deputy-Presidential Chief of Staff. He became close to Putin and in 2000 ran Putin's election campaign which resulted in an overwhelming victory for them.
From that time until 2003 Medvedev was the Chair of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, where he pushed hard for acquisitions of other Russian energy assets and to end subsities to other foreign countries. He is believed to have had a large influence on the overall economic policy of Russia.
In 2003 Medvedev became the President's Chief of Staff and was placed in charge of "national projects" on health care, education, housing, and welfare. Due to a large inflow of money from oil wealth the projects were succesful and Medvedev took the credit for the succes.
In 2005 he was apointed First Deputy Prime Minister, a position from which he directed the economic policy of the country until his election in 2008 to the post of President.
Dmitry Medvedev is considered as a moderate liberal pragmatic, able administrator and Putin's loyalist. Experts characterize Medvedev as 100% a Putin protege, part of the group of “Petersburg lawyers,” along with Dmitry Kozak, Presidential Envoy to the Southern Federal District. Throughout his years working in the Presidential Administration, Medvedev is said to have deliberately avoided aligning himself with either the camp of the security service officials (the “siloviki”
or the group around Alexander Voloshin (one of the major figures of the so-called “family” of the Boris Yeltsin era and Medvedev’s boss in the Kremlin until October 2003, when he resigned and was replaced by Medvedev).
