Kremlin Fears A Break Up - The St. Petersburg Times
A rift among national power brokers threatens the country with disintegration that could have even more violent consequences than the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kremlin chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev warned in a wide-ranging interview published Monday.
[...]
Liberal politicians said Monday that Medvedev's calls for the elites to close ranks could pave the way for a crackdown on opposition and dissent, Ekho Moskvy radio reported Monday. Irina Khakamada, leader of the liberal party Our Choice, or Nash Vybor, said Medvedev wanted to scare officials out of supporting dissenting groups, the radio reported.
According to analysts, however, the interview was the Kremlin's response to growing discontent among politicians, business people and intellectuals with Putin's policies. Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank, said Medvedev could be trying to engage regional and national elites that feel sidelined by Putin's retinue, which mainly consists of his former colleagues in the administration of former St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. "The current authorities do not represent all elites," he said. "Many of them do not like that they are being oppressed."
Alternatively, Pribylovsky said, Medvedev could be sending a message to various groups in the presidential administration including the siloviki, the St. Petersburg economists and the St. Petersburg lawyers. These groups have been at odds recently over control of economic assets, he said.
In his interview, Medvedev - a 39-year-old lawyer by profession who graduated from Putin's old law school in St. Petersburg - admitted differences among administration members. "We are not the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and we do not campaign for unity of thought," he said. "The main thing is not to lose your ability to criticize yourself, and not to stoop to using primitive management schemes, forgetting about the real goal of statecraft."
Some analysts have speculated that members of Putin's administration have been split over what to do with the spoils of the state takeover of Yukos' main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz. Kremlin deputy chief of staff Igor Sechin is chairman of state-owned Rosneft, which acquired Yugansk after last December's auction, while Medvedev is chairman at Gazprom, which is due to merge with Rosneft. The two companies have openly bickered over control of assets under the terms of their merger.
Pribylovsky said the threat of Russia's disintegration was a very powerful argument, because "80 percent of people believe that should not be allowed." But Pribylovsky took issue with Medvedev's analysis, saying that the primary threat to Russia's unity was the ongoing conflict in Chechnya and instability in the North Caucasus as a whole, a subject Medvedev did not touch upon in his interview.
Medvedev said another problem that endangered Russia's territorial integrity was the insufficient development of sparsely populated Siberia and the Far East. "If we don't develop the east, Russia will not be unified," he said.
Complete Article
Kremlin Fears A Break Up
By Anatoly Medetsky
STAFF WRITER
MOSCOW - A rift among national power brokers threatens the country with disintegration that could have even more violent consequences than the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kremlin chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev warned in a wide-ranging interview published Monday.
"If we don't manage to consolidate elites, Russia may disappear as one state," Medvedev told Expert magazine. "The disintegration of the Soviet Union would look like a kindergarten party compared to the collapse of the modern Russian state."
The elites should unite behind the idea of "preserving an effective state system within the existing boundaries," he said.
The normally publicity-shy Medvedev gave the interview - his most extensive and comprehensive since his appointment in 2003 - only days after a popular uprising swept away the regime of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and as debates continued about what could happen after President Vladimir Putin ends his second, and constitutionally final, term in 2008.
Liberal politicians said Monday that Medvedev's calls for the elites to close ranks could pave the way for a crackdown on opposition and dissent, Ekho Moskvy radio reported Monday.
Irina Khakamada, leader of the liberal party Our Choice, or Nash Vybor, said Medvedev wanted to scare officials out of supporting dissenting groups, the radio reported.
According to analysts, however, the interview was the Kremlin's response to growing discontent among politicians, business people and intellectuals with Putin's policies
Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank, said Medvedev could be trying to engage regional and national elites that feel sidelined by Putin's retinue, which mainly consists of his former colleagues in the administration of former St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
"The current authorities do not represent all elites," he said. "Many of them do not like that they are being oppressed."
Alternatively, Pribylovsky said, Medvedev could be sending a message to various groups in the presidential administration including the siloviki, the St. Petersburg economists and the St. Petersburg lawyers. These groups have been at odds recently over control of economic assets, he said.
In his interview, Medvedev - a 39-year-old lawyer by profession who graduated from Putin's old law school in St. Petersburg - admitted differences among administration members.
"We are not the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and we do not campaign for unity of thought," he said. "The main thing is not to lose your ability to criticize yourself, and not to stoop to using primitive management schemes, forgetting about the real goal of statecraft."
Some analysts have speculated that members of Putin's administration have been split over what to do with the spoils of the state takeover of Yukos' main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz. Kremlin deputy chief of staff Igor Sechin is chairman of state-owned Rosneft, which acquired Yugansk after last December's auction, while Medvedev is chairman at Gazprom, which is due to merge with Rosneft. The two companies have openly bickered over control of assets under the terms of their merger.
Pribylovsky said the threat of Russia's disintegration was a very powerful argument, because "80 percent of people believe that should not be allowed."
But Pribylovsky took issue with Medvedev's analysis, saying that the primary threat to Russia's unity was the ongoing conflict in Chechnya and instability in the North Caucasus as a whole, a subject Medvedev did not touch upon in his interview.
Medvedev said another problem that endangered Russia's territorial integrity was the insufficient development of sparsely populated Siberia and the Far East. "If we don't develop the east, Russia will not be unified," he said.
The project to build an oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific coast could boost the economy of the vast region, he said, adding that the government has until May 1 to make up its mind on a route so the project could go ahead.
Medvedev also supported merging Russian regions, saying that this would help strengthen Russia's territorial integrity. But he said regions should unite voluntarily.
Part of why Medvedev fears splits at the top of society is based on growing unrest among sections of the business elite, said Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst. Many business leaders who built their empires in the Yeltsin years are increasingly uncertain about what direction Putin's economic policies will take, and they are halting their investments in Russia, he said.
Many analysts saw former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's return to politics and his statement that he could possibly run for the presidency as a sign that the splits were coming out into the open - and that some, particularly among the business elite that Kasyanov represents, were daring to move into open opposition.
Staff writer Catherine Belton contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment