Medvedev Says Putin Would Be Named Premier
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: December 12, 2007
來源：http://0rz.tw/f63pQ The New York Times
MOSCOW, Dec. 11 — A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal
protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the
nation today and declared that he in turn would name Mr. Putin as his prime
minister.
The announcement appeared to bring to a close questions about how Mr. Putin
intends to wield influence over Russia after his term ends next year. Mr.
Putin is barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive
term, but he had indicated in recent months that he had no intention of
giving up his power when he steps down in the spring.
Mr. Medvedev has no background in the state security services and virtually
no power base in the Kremlin, and he is seen here as a relatively weak figure
beholden to Mr. Putin. With Mr. Putin as prime minister, it would appear that
little will change in who controls Russia.
Some analysts have speculated that Mr. Medvedev might even step down before
his term as president ends — clearing the way for Mr. Putin to be elevated
again from prime minister to president, a development that is allowed under
the Constitution.
In his speech today, Mr. Medvedev said that Russia had to continue on the
path set by Mr. Putin since he took office in 2000.
“In order to stay on this path, it is not enough to elect a new president
who shares this ideology,” Mr. Medvedev said. “It is not less important to
maintain the efficiency of the team formed by the incumbent president. That
is why I find it extremely important for our country to keep Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin at the most important position in the executive power, at
the post of the chairman of the government.”
Mr. Putin had indicated in October in a speech to his party, United Russia,
that he might become prime minister or party leader.
In the recent parliamentary election, United Russia based its campaign almost
entirely on Mr. Putin’s record, so much so that many of its commercials and
billboards promoted the president while barely mentioning the party.
Mr. Medvedev, who is a first deputy prime minister and the chairman of
Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, has never run for any office, and almost
his entire career has been linked to Mr. Putin.
Unlike Mr. Putin and many top officials in the Kremlin, Mr. Medvedev appears
to have no background in the K.G.B.; its successor, the F.S.B.; or other
state security agencies.
Mr. Putin’s selection of Mr. Medvedev, 42, made him the overwhelming
favorite to win the presidency in March. “I’ve been very close to him for
more than 17 years,” Mr. Putin said on Monday in a televised appearance with
leaders of four political parties allied with the Kremlin, “and fully and
completely support this candidacy.”
Little is known about how Mr. Medvedev, a former law professor, might govern
— other than what can be inferred from a relationship with Mr. Putin, 55,
that is sometimes compared here to father and son.
Since taking office in 2000, Mr. Putin has seeded the government with many
former intelligence officers. Mr. Medvedev’s lack of ties to the security
services indicate to some here that he is a relatively weak figure beholden
to Mr. Putin.
“All Medvedev has is that he is a creature of Putin,” said Nikolai V.
Zlobin, a former professor at Moscow State University who is a fellow at the
World Security Institute in Washington. “Everything that Medvedev has is
owed to Putin. There is no Medvedev without Putin.”
In an interview with foreign journalists last month, Mr. Medvedev defended
Mr. Putin’s decision to stay on in some way. “Everyone knows that President
Putin has done a lot, and has worked for the development of the state,” Mr.
Medvedev said. “And the desire of political forces sympathetic to President
Putin for him to remain a key political figure in the future is
understandable.”
While Mr. Medvedev is clearly a Putin loyalist, Russia has never had leaders
who have wielded decisive authority from the background. Power has
traditionally emanated from the office — be that of the czar, the Communist
Party general secretary or the Russian president. Whether Mr. Putin would be
able to keep control over the government even as Mr. Medvedev retained legal
control over its levers is an open question.
Mr. Putin himself was essentially installed as prime minister in 1999 by
associates of President Boris N. Yeltsin, who believed that Mr. Putin would
be easily managed. But Mr. Putin, who became president when Mr. Yeltsin
abruptly resigned, has turned out to be a far more independent and vigorous
leader than had been expected.
Because of his relationship with Mr. Putin, Mr. Medvedev had long been one of
the most likely choices to receive the president’s endorsement, along with
another first deputy prime minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, who is considered more
hawkish. Another possible candidate had been the prime minister, Viktor A.
Zubkov, whom Mr. Putin appointed to his current post in September.
Mr. Medvedev has a reputation as a technocrat with a strong grasp of
economics, and he is given to making scholarly allusions to Latin legal
terms. Mr. Putin has put him in charge of spending some of the country’s
large budget surplus — amassed because of the high price of oil — on
improving housing, health care, education and other social services.
Mr. Putin also appointed him chairman of Gazprom, though he does not have
deep roots in the company and is regarded as the Kremlin’s eyes and ears
there.
In contrast to Mr. Ivanov, Mr. Medvedev is considered a moderate with a more
pro-Western bent. Still, he has never publicly described his agenda should he
win the presidency. Despite the discussion over the last year about
presidential succession, he had never declared an interest in the office,
clearly in deference to Mr. Putin.
Mr. Medvedev, who is short and youthful-looking, is regularly shown on
state-controlled television, but he is not known for having a politician’s
skill at connecting with large audiences. He is considered to be less awkward
in more informal settings and is known for cracking jokes and bantering with
journalists.
He made no public comments on Monday, beyond a terse acceptance of Mr. Putin’
s endorsement at the meeting of political parties shown on Russian
television. Mr. Putin said at the meeting that under Mr. Medvedev, Russia
would continue to follow the course set over the past eight years.
Born in St. Petersburg, Mr. Medvedev received his first job in the city’s
government in the early 1990s, thanks to Mr. Putin. Mr. Medvedev also taught
law at St. Petersburg State University in the 1990s.
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