USSR2 File: Medvedev counter-anoints Putin as next prime minister; Zyuganov only serious rival for presidency, challenges Gazprom head to debate

"Ex"-CPSU Russian President Vladimir Putin and the potemkin "party of power" United Russia (ER) have anointed "ex"-Komsomol Dmitry Medvedev as the next president of Russia. Neither man is a member of ER, but both are connected to the old Soviet regime. Yesterday, Medvedev turned around and anointed Putin as the next prime minister, a post that Putin held briefly between 1999 and 2000. "I express my readiness to contest the post of Russia’s president and I am asking him to agree in principle to lead the Cabinet after a new president has been elected,” Medvedev declared on December 17. "I am ready to head the government without changing the powers between the president and the government,” Putin responded, apparently ending several years of speculation regarding his political future.

The Medvedev succession is another surprising Putin appointment that has come out of "left field" (pun intended), much like Viktor Zubkov's appointment as PM and former PM Mikhail Fradkov's appointment as director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). "Dmitry Medvedev, who was 'elected' by President Vladimir Putin," observes the independent Moscow Times, "is one of the few people in Putin's close circle who does not have any connections, as far as we can tell, with the Federal Security Services." This apparently presents a problem for Putin. Journalist Leonid Radzikhovsky asks the "million dollar question": "If Putin understands that Medvedev is weak in this area, why did he choose him as a successor?" There, of course, could be several unpublicized reasons that Medvedev was anointed as the next president of Russia, but be assured that Moscow's Leninist masterminds will use the Medvedev candidacy to advance the Soviet strategy vis-a-vis the West. Radzikhovsky concludes:

One can assume that Putin does not want the security services to gain any more power than it has already amassed and, thus, he may have looked to Medvedev as a sort of counterbalance to the siloviki. But Medvedev hardly serves as a counterbalance to the siloviki if he never worked there and doesn't have his own people in place at the top. Medvedev has only one link to the security services -- Putin himself. The challenge for Putin is to somehow subordinate the FSB to Medvedev. But in what capacity will Putin be able to do this? This is the big question facing the country.

Since Putin has finally disclosed his next career move, the Times Online reports today that "Registration of presidential candidates closes on Friday and Mr Medvedev has no serious challengers. His principal rival is the Communist Party leader, Gennadi Zyuganov, who has already lost twice." As we have insisted before, Zyuganov will be the chief opponent for any United Russia-backed presidential candidate. Interviewed today by state-run Itar-Tass, Zyuganov predicted a two-round presidential election: "Two rounds will be inevitable. I have a team, a platform and a well-structured organization and coalition. I will be representing not only the Communist Party as such, but some three dozen various organizations. I am determined to do my best in the first round." Zyuganov last contested the Russian presidency in 2000 and before that in 1996, when he came within several percentage points of unseating Yeltsin.

The independent St. Petersburg Times reports that Zyuganov--who is legally challenging the results of the December 2 State Duma election that handed two thirds of the seats to ER--has thrown down the gauntlet by challenging Medvedev to a public debate mano-a-mano:

I believe that the Communists enjoy the support of at least one-third of voters. This is very serious and solid support. The authorities are afraid of an open political rivalry. I officially invite United Russia’s new presidential candidate to such a dialogue. We admit some of the mistakes made in the past. But at the same time we want to remind you that it was in Soviet times when our nation became a real superpower and was the first to go into space. The Communist Party insists on nationalization of natural resources and strategic sectors of industry.

The latter proposition is somewhat deceptive since the Putinist regime has already heavily renationalized the Russian economy, albeit not in the name of "the people."

Eurasianism: A Vehicle for Creating the World Communist Federation

Incidentally, prior to accepting the post of PM, the Russian president had been touted as the next leader of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, a post currently administered by Pavel Borodin with some assistance from Zubkov. Between 1993 and 2000, when he assumed the post of Union State State Secretary, Borodin, like Putin, was a lackey of President Boris Yeltsin, supervising the Kremlin's property management office, which dispenses offices, apartments, country houses, and cars as part of a regular compensation packages for Kremlin and State Duma officials. In 1999 the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera asserted that Borodin funneled US$1 million in "pocket money" through a Swiss bank account held in his name to the Yeltsin entourage. In March 2001 BBC News reported that "Mr Borodin has been under investigation for having allegedly taken at least $25 million in kickbacks from construction companies that won contracts to work on Kremlin property." BBC also revealed that "Borodin is facing extradition to Switzerland on charges of money laundering and belonging to a criminal organisation." At the time US authorities, acting on an international arrest warrant, temporarily detained Borodin in New York City. Upon returning to Russia, Putin sacked the scandal-plagued Borodin, but Yeltsin's former croney was incongruously promoted to his current position.

Borodin heads the obscure Eurasian Party-Russia's Patriots Union (EP-SPR), hence, his advocacy of the Moscow-Berlin-Paris Axis and recent statement promoting the merger of the Union State with the European Union. Borodin's party should be distinguished from the other party of the same name that was founded by Alexander Dugin, who also drafted the program of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.