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Politics in Russia: power, lobby, conflicts. Issue No (51) 792

December 14 - 20, 2009

Main tendencies of political week

Dmitry Medvedev’s domestic policy activities, mainly in the first half of the week, were the highlight of last week. In particular, the Russian president sent a welcoming message to participants of the “Sakharov’s Ideas Today” conference, met with representatives of the scientific community and attended the youth winners’ forum. All these steps were generally interpreted by the mass media and experts in a liberal way (including the dismissal of Anatoly Mikhalkin, head of the tax crimes department of the Moscow police, who was named one of the main persons responsible for the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitsky in a pretrial detention center). At the same time, the head of state congratulated security services (Foreign Intelligence Service and Federal Security Service) on their professional holiday. Even the latter case some mass media tried to portray in a liberal light but those interpretations did not look very convincing.

On this background opponents of state authorities started more actively searching for new news-generating occasions to maintain pressure on the Kremlin. With the topic of the Perm fire tragedy becoming exhausted, new claims of anthropogenic character emerged, e.g. incidents at public utilities caused by severe frosts (a corresponding incident in the State Duma was especially noticeable). The second direction of criticism concerned 20 years since Andrey Sakharov passed away and Yegor Gaidar’s death. There were active attempts to oppose “pure democratic ideals” to the present day “dirty” and “spiritually deprived” state authorities. Simultaneously, representatives of the “dignified” part of the liberal camp noticeably reduced their activities given the palm to their more marginal colleagues in the media field. Judging by certain remarks in articles, they are readying for a long-term game having stopped counting on a quick success. They are likely to stake on confrontation of the ruling tandem members during the 2011-2012 election cycle.

Barely visible but consistent preparations for transformation of the party field continued last week. The LDPR’s anniversary congress once again confirmed suppositions about crisis developments in the party. Its defeat at the Moscow elections raised the issue of its prospects. LDPR has traditionally existed as a party of one charismatic leader; bright figures with comparable political talent have been toughly suppressed. Now the party is a hostage of its own policy: due to a number of objective and subjective reasons Zhirinovsky has started to lose his drive and his potential successors were long ago forced out of the party. Feeling the danger of defeat at the next Duma elections Zhirinovsky became nervous and made some resonant statements irritating the Kremlin. To force LDPR to a dialogue UR acting on behalf of state authorities initiated a campaign against the LDPR leader that will continue until he shows his intention to agree taking into account new realities.

Major events December 14 - 20, 2009

Event Winning side Defeated side Development Outlooks

Dmitry Medvedev meets with participants of the national youth forum Proryv (Breakthrough)

Dmitry Medvedev

 

Authorities will keep controlling the process of the youth’s socialization

Dmitry Medvedev meets with representatives of the scientific community

Dmitry Medvedev, Yury Osipov

 

Without rejuvenation the research community will hinder modernization

LDPR congress

Vladimir Zhirinovsky

 

LDPR will have to cooperate with state authorities on new terms

UR representatives in the State Duma refuse to have a minute of silence in honor of Yegor Gaidar’ memory

UR

JR, LDPR, CPRF

The Duma opposition will keep coordinating their actions to discredit the party of power

Nikolay Konstantinov is appointed head of the presidential secretariat

Alexander Beglov

 

This appointment won’t result in any serious redistribution of the administrative resource in the presidential administration

Alexander Neradko is appointed head of the federal air transportation agency

Igor Levitin

 

Neradko will gather all powers on managing the civil aviation in his agency

Acting prosecutor general Alexander Buksman signs an order dismissing Anatoly Bagmet, head of the Moscow department of the Investigation Committee

Yury Chaika

Alexander Bastrykin

A. Bastrykin is very likely to defend his protégé and the order won’t be implemented

Communists of Russia public organization is registered

 

CPRF

The new organization will try to find weak points in CPRF’s regional cells

INSOR head Igor Yurgens’s interview with Sobesednik newspaper

   

Systemic liberals will continue pressurizing the ruling tandem simultaneously showing their loyalty to the Kremlin

Volume: 14 pages


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Other issues:
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Analytical series “The Political compass”:

Political power in Russia after presidential election
State Corporations in the Russian Economy
Political Results of 2007: Russia on the Eve of Power Shuffle
Political Landscape Ahead of the Parliamentary Election 2007
«Centers of influence» in the Russian politics
Leading Russian corporations and the executive power: interaction methods
Forecast of political developments after the presidential election in 2008

All reports for: 2009 , 2008 , 2007

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