by Patrick Armstrong
The Sobchak influence. Medvedev and Putin are disciples and admirers of
Anatoliy
Sobchak and both commemorated the tenth anniversary of his death on
Saturday. Medvedev, who knew him
as one of his students and later worked with him in St Petersburg, gave praise to “the man who first brought
legitimacy to Soviet politics”. In an interview
for a program on his life and work, Putin paid very high tribute to him. He
described how he began working for him when he was Mayor of St Petersburg, how
he quit the KGB in the August 1991 coup attempt (“I wrote a letter of
resignation in the first hours after the coup began… The point is that I had
made my choice and I could not change it. It was my duty to be there, defending
our shared ideals and the concept of national development which Mr Sobchak and
I had put into words and implemented together.”) and how much he learned from him
in work habits and morality: “The time when I worked with Mr Sobchak was the
most valuable part of my education. It was in that period that my basic
principles of work and communication took shape. The fundamentals of my
personal principles and behaviour probably began to develop much earlier, at
home and later at the university, where I studied and he taught. However, my
work with him had tremendous practical significance for me”. So we have both
the present and previous Presidents telling us that they regard Sobchak as
their mentor and example and regard their times working under him as formative.
Perhaps, the Kommentariat should pay more attention to this relationship and
less to the lazy assumption that all we need to know is that Putin was a KGB
officer and Medvedev is his sock puppet.
Police reform. Reform of the
Interior Ministry started with a bang as Medvedev dismissed 15 senior
MVD generals, including 2 Deputy Ministers (they to be replaced by civilians).
Some were dismissed because of violations of the law by them or their
subordinates, some to clear the way for new people. As the Russians (and many
others) say: “The fish rots from the head” (although the Minister himself appears to be safe. And
in uniform as an Army General: surely it is time to stop giving Armed Forces ranks
to policemen.)
Energy. Putin has signed a resolution
setting out the principles of Russia’s long-term energy market, Details are not
yet out but he promises clear and consistent regulations that companies will
have to work within (and punishment if they do not). As has suddenly become fashionable,
he proposes investment
for new nuclear power plants.
Law and Order. Members of a racist skinhead gang the “White Wolves”
(interestingly, one of them has a Georgian surname) have received
heavy sentences for numerous murders. Investigators say they have
identified a suspect in the murder of Natalia Estemirova.
NATO. Confusing messages out of NATO: US Secretary of State Clinton calls for
cooperation: “While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among
them”; Secretary General Rasmussen says NATO has not
given up plans to accept Georgia and Ukraine. By the way, the new Russian
military doctrine distinguishes between a “military danger” (военная опасность)
and a “military threat” (военная угроза). NATO expansion is the former and
clearly not as serious as the latter.
Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych
was inaugurated
today as President and made a speech to the Rada (with
several Christian references, interestingly) in which he pledged that Ukraine sought
good relations all round and would not join any military alliances (“We are
ready to participate in such processes as a European non-aligned state”). Symbolising
this, his first trips abroad will be to Brussels (1 March) and Moscow (5 March).
Tymoshenko withdrew her court challenge but, as she did, claimed the court was biased and insisted that
she did not recognise Yanukovych as President. Her party (modestly named the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) boycotted
Yanukovych’s address. So, the question for the Ukrainian political system is
whether Yanukovych’s party
can put together a coalition
and oust her as PM or whether we will have another period of the (same) PM
opposing everything a (different) President does. Amusingly, Berezovskiy has excoriated
the Ukrainian people for their vote: many
suspect that he was one of the people behind the “Orange Revolution”.
Comments