Boris Yeltsin made Putin his successor. This served to preserve the existing power structure but also created the semblance of stability in a complex empire.
The present president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, was nominated as president by Putin in 2007. Putin was made prime minister by Medvedev in 2008. Now they are getting ready to swap chairs in the coming elections (next March). Medvedev refrained from running for a second term. This is a reflection of the power of Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s popularity and power emanates from two sources: 1) Oil and gas revenues, the procurement and transport of which he organized to be the backbone of the Russian economy. The growing energy needs of Europe have brought relative prosperity to Russia. 2) Following the turmoil of the 1990s, his iron-fisted methods brought stability and order.
Many Russians believe that it was Putin who brought the country back from the edge of disintegration. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, for a while Russians felt powerless and defeated. Then came Putin, who made the Russian state powerful and respected. That is why they did not care much about how Putin and company hijacked the country to make it their fiefdom.
Today, Russia’s constitution is a text that legitimizes the omnipotence of an autocratic leader. Existing democratic institutions do not function as popular instruments but rather as instruments of the state. There is hardly any separation of powers.
However, Putin doesn’t need to control the Russian political system as tightly as he does. He has proven to be a powerful leader with considerable popularity, for he has given Russians back their self-respect together with a degree of prosperity. He would win a free election easily despite an array of contenders and competing political parties. Yet he hardly allows them media access and prevents them entering the competition due to “technical obstructions,” or existing parties are co-opted by the ruling party.
He may believe that he is indispensable to the stability of his country together with millions of people who would vote for him, but it is in Russia’s long-term interest to allow the political system to slowly evolve toward a full-fledged democracy.
It is reported that the slowness of this transition and the lack of a real opposition is pushing some of the Russian literati and businessmen to vote for the Communists in the coming elections. They are not Communists nor do they believe the Communist Party will win. However, there is no other way to register a protest vote. And that is exactly what they want to do.
When Medvedev steps down, Putin will return to the Kremlin as the leader of a nuclear power, commander-in-chief of a million-strong army and the tsar of energy; this gives him real power. No doubt he will be one of the foremost powerbrokers of our times.
