Putin Shuffles Government, Posing Mystery

Reference

Chivers, C.J (2007, September 12). Putin Shuffles Government, Posing Mystery. Retrieved September 13, 2007 from the New York Times. http://nytimes.com


Summary

In Chivers's article, "Putin Shuffles Government, Posing Mystery", he tries to explain how and why the Russian President Has nominated one of his closest men Mr. Zubkov, as a Prime Minister, after accepting the resignation of the former Prime Minister Mr. Fradkov. He then says that this surprising nomination is the object of analysis and comments by some political actors and diplomats who are arguing to find out the main reason of the President for doing that. Next, he shows how the elections are organised and how the results are treated in Russia. He also underlines that the choice of that nomination should be approved by the parliament. In the end, he mentions the career of the nominated Prime Minister in other functions before this one and gives some statements and points of view of the former advisor to the Minister of economy, Mr. Remchukov, about the nominated Prime Minister.


Reaction

In politics, the games and strategies are sometimes used, but as I perceive this nomination, they must probably have a major hidden reason. According to me, the Russian President is using a sort of stratagem, in spite of the opinions of some politicians. He is seeking to prepare his successor and his support for the next president. As shown in the article, the actual Prime Minister is one of Putin's confidants, with whom he shares the same political views and ideologies. Probably, that might have influenced Mr. Putin to choose Mr. Zubkov for the presidency. The President is making himself more discrete; that is a positive side for a real statesman to not allow the public opinion to easily figure out your aspiration. The resignation of the former Prime Minister seems to be one of the government's secrets, which are sometimes difficult to be revealed because of some political realities. Who knows if that resignation was pushed or influenced by the President? That remains to be known.

The ideological reality is really considered in politics to preserve power and force, which are important elements in the sector. it's usually something done by a president by the end of his mandate in order to influence the successor to have the same polical tendency. Such an event happened recently in France. The former President Mr. Chirac had used Mr. Villepin as a Prime Minister to prepare him for the elections and to push back Mr. Sarkozy for the errand of Elysee because Mr. Villepin had the same political ideology as Mr. Chirac, compared to Mr. Sarkozy, despite the fact that they were all in the same political party. Surprisingly, Mr. Sarkozy was a favorite candidate in the party.

This is to illustrate how stakes are in politics and to state that the hidden diary of the Russian President is about his succession as he seemed to prepare Mr. Zubkov for the Presidency by making him maybe more responsible or by observing the way he will accomplish the task in order to have an idea about his choice for a candidate. Although that nomination has to get by the parliament for approval, there will be very little effect as a result because he is supervising everything, even in this parliament. In addition, the parliament is supposed to be independent for controlling all the government actions, but on the contrary, this one is not able to escape from the President's domination. At least a bad side about Mr. Zubkov is that he is not strongly well known as an influential political man; that's why his nomination creates some debates, but sometimes politics reserves surprises; that's why the Russian President is still trusting. And like all politicians, he may be thinking about both strategies and choices for the elections, after he leaves from the presidency.