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Main page > Products > Politics in Russia: power, lobby, conflicts - The weekly bulletin > Politics in Russia: power, lobby, conflicts. Issue No (38) 726 Politics in Russia: power, lobby, conflicts. Issue No (38) 726September 8-14, 2008 Main tendencies of political weekBoth members of the power tandem met with representatives of the Valdai discussion club last week, which once again demonstrated coordinated activities by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. It should be pointed out that the PM was the first to meet with political scientists, although officially it was attributed to technical reasons. Although both politicians showed identical approaches to fundamental issues, attempts to consider their relations in the light of a possible conflict did not cease. Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to replace Vladimir Putin as head of the council for the Sochi Olympics contributed to such speculations last week. There was also continuation of attempts to mildly discredit Vladimir Putin in the mass media. There were many HR changes last week, especially in the law enforcement agencies. In particular, in compliance with the presidential decree, the department for fighting organized crime and terrorism headed by Sergey Meshcheryakov is to be disbanded, which can be considered victory of his rival, deputy interior minister Yevgeny Shkolov. Rumors about soon merger of the prosecutor general’s office and the justice ministry with Yury Chaika’s consequent dismissal should be considered in the same context: less than a year ago the latter supported ministerial ambitions of Sergey Meshcheryakov. At the same time there were attempts to maintain balance in the ministry: Alexander Smirny was appointed deputy minister; he can be considered ally of another contender for the ministerial post, Mikhail Sukhodolsky. Administrative struggle affected civil bodies too. Confrontation between the finance and economic development ministries regarding the VAT rate cut sharpened again. The strengthening of Alexey Kudrin’s positions does not mean capitulation by Elvira Nabiullina: a decree on distributing authority between her deputies issued last week testifies to the fact that she feels quite confident. The positions of sports minister Vitaly Mutko seem to have strengthened noticeably: his opponent, Vyacheslav Fetisov was elected senator of the Primorsky Region and there were rumors in the expert community about soon abolition of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports and transfer of its functions to the ministry. A long lasting conflict involving the majority of Russia’s most influential businessmen, around the Udokan deposit was finally settled. As a result the Chemezov-Usmanov tandem defeated the alliance of Yakunin and Vekselberg. At the same time the development and results of the struggle for Udokan demonstrated that the phenomenon of the power tandem does not lead to destructive war between different clans but rather has a latent character of confrontation between different wings around the single decision-making center – the power tandem. Major events September 8 - September 14, 2008
Volume: 15 pages
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