This state of affairs is unchartered waters for Russia because on the one hand it is the first time that a very strong and popular former president accepts the secondary post of prime minister ship and on the other a young, inexperienced man, Medvedev, selected and made president by Putin for his loyalty knows very well that his mentor Putin will hold real power and run Russia in his own way, overshadowing the presidential powers, recognized by the constitution Under the constitution, the president is commander-in-chief of armed forces, responsible for foreign policy and security issues, and for setting the general direction of policies. The prime minister and government are responsible for implementing policy, especially in the social and economic fields.
However, the broad division of power set by the constitution is something, its application is another. The point is who will have the real power as opposed to formal power and in that regard Putin has been the real source of power as president for the last eight years, who by all accounts will not relinquish them because he wants Russia to continue the path he had chartered, to be supported fully by his protégée Medvedev.. As a result, inevitably everybody asks whether there was a real handover of power in Russia this week. Experts differ on this but most say that it did not happen. One of those is Yevgeny Volk, director of the Moscow Office of the Heritage Foundation.
''I think, in all honesty, it is not possible to talk of any real handover of power. All the structures of power that were formed under Putin will remain in place. Moreover, Putin has taken all measures to ensure that in his new position as prime minister he will retain much of the powers he previously held as president, and to make certain that his role has been strengthened in relation to that of the president.'' He says.
Another expert, Boris Makarenko's views, are also worth mentioning here and that is what he says on the same matter:
''Under Vladimir Putin, the presidential administration and government were, in fact, a single mechanism. Now, of course, the government headed by Putin will in fact be more powerful than the cabinets headed by former Prime Ministers Mikhail Fradkov and Viktor Zubkov. I don't think it is necessary to explain why. For this, it is not necessary to change the constitution, which is already flexible enough. Exclusive powers of the president and the government are prescribed in it. And the ' grey zone' will be divided up differently from the way it is now. In fact, the Fradkov and Zubkov cabinets were also atypical for Russia over the past one and a half decades. There were times when the White House was significantly stronger, under Premies Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yevgeny Primakov, an even under Mikhail Kasyanov. Now there are two questions. The first: How harmonious will the tandem standing at the head of the executive power turn out to be? Here there is no reason not to believe the assurances of Putin and Medvedev that they are like-minded and will work well together. The second question: Will competition between the apparatuses of the president and prime minister be inevitable? No one can answer that yet. Everything depends on how often Putin and Medvedev straighten out their entourages, not allowing competition to take on a destructive character.'
These two views sum up the present power shift and its probable consequences very well. To add to these, I say that a new era has begun with Putin still at the helm, again, and Medvedev going along with him.
