Politics in Russia: power, lobby, conflicts. Issue No (49) 737

November 24-30, 2008

Main tendencies of political week

The top of the iceberg was public politics last week, which is explained by quite obvious reasons. The crisis situation made political parties that are supposed to channel social discontent, intensify their activities. United Russia, as the party of power, voiced one initiative after another but they were mainly aimed at imitating activities, since the anti-crisis plan is not developed in the State Duma. At the same time on the regional level the party of power may well become another instrument of collecting information for the Center. CPRF is still in a rather contradictory situation. On one side, the party needs renewal of its leadership, including at the top level. This would enable the party to stop decline in its rating and maximize its support on the background of the crisis; however, Gennady Zyuganov’s ambitions hinder this.

Meanwhile, the struggle of centers of influence for decreasing resources intensified. The worsening social and economic situation influenced the layout of forces on the inside-elite field. Since many groups of influence attracted credits in the rich years to develop assets they controlled, the liquidity crisis and slump in share prices raised the issue of sources of funds to pay off credits. Radical siloviki are currently in the most favorable situation, as they in fact have monopolized control over state assistance channeled through Vnesheconombank (VEB). This enables them to neutralize and bring to submission many opponents, e.g. representatives of the Family group, who seem to be dissolving as an elite group and may only count on patronage of other centers of influence.

Administrative struggle in the government, which somewhat calmed down in the mid-autumn, is again accelerating. The strengthening of Alexey Kudrin’s positions, whose ministry in fact has turned into a mini-government, worries other players claiming control over financial resources. The external evidence of activities against him is the initiative of the State Duma communists who intend to start collecting signatures against the finance minister. It is interesting that this campaign will focus mainly on Kudrin’s activities that allegedly contradict the instructions by Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, which is aimed at discrediting him in the eyes of the tandem.

Struggle in law enforcement agencies has also sharpened. The prosecutor general’s office and the investigation committee intensified activities aimed at broadening their influence. While the first entity concentrated on supervisory activities, the latter managed to ensure another administrative win and secured the passing of amendments in the State Duma broadening the authority of investigators and their chiefs. Other entities, e.g. the court bailiff service, are also claiming more authority under the pretext of fighting the crisis.

Major events November 24 - November 30, 2008

Volume: 15 pages