#RUSSIA LAME DUCK SERIES#
In a series of voluminous articles published in Russia’s leading newspapers, Putin is regurgitating many of the same concepts that Medvedev laid out three-and-a-half years ago. What’s more, he has appropriated the rhetoric of reform for his presidential campaign, as if the promise of Russia’s modernization was his own idea. Putin avoids mentioning his protégé in public. His ill-considered decision to abolish winter time was as an act of desperation to change something, anything.įor Putin, Medvedev’s presidency never happened. The only noticeable result of the Interior Ministry reform, for example, was that the communist-era “militia” was renamed “police.” Medvedev’s job was to stay the course, not rock the boat. In 2009, a few days before his 44th birthday, Medvedev published a remarkable online manifesto (click here for the English translation), inviting his fellow citizens to join him in rejecting the country’s totalitarian past and transforming Russia into a Western-style democracy.Īlas, Medvedev’s great changes – as sincere as they may have been in intent – remained the stuff of speeches and bills. Medvedev made modernization the catchword of his term in office, promising to kick Russia’s dependence on the export of natural resources, uproot corruption and end the “legal nihilism” of Russia’s criminal justice system. Now, as the prime minister prepares for certain victory over four straw men in the March presidential election, he is busy erasing whatever traces remain of the Medvedev presidency. Putin said Medvedev had based his decision on expert advice that dairy cows can’t be forced to give milk an hour earlier than their biological clocks allow.Īt a convention of his ruling United Russia party in September, Putin revealed to the world that Medvedev’s purpose in life had been to keep the presidential seat warm for him because of a constitutional ban on three consecutive terms. Working people have complained to Putin that they lose an hour of daylight in the winter because the sun now rises an hour later, while soccer fans have told him that they need to stay up an hour longer to watch matches in western Europe.
In a meeting with supporters of his presidential campaign on Tuesday, Putin said that he would consider reversing Medvedev’s abolishment of the seasonal time change. As if being the world’s first voluntary lame-duck president wasn’t bad enough, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has indicated he will rescind the only Medvedev reform that had any effect on the lives of ordinary Russians.
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