Experts: a new Politburo to lead Russia
Moscow (AsiaNews)
- The system of power that governs Russia today is a "conglomerate of
groups and clans that compete for the resources of the country"; it
resembles a sort of a "Politburo", consisting of about eight people
governed by the president, Vladimir Putin. This
is the conclusion of the report by the authoritative think tank Minchenko
Consulting Group. Released
on 21 August, the document states the "tandem" Putin-Medvedev mechanism
that characterized the last eight years of the country's political life is "buried",
and reveals the exit strategy of power in the event of a serious political
crisis.
Lead
by political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko, the Minchenko Consulting Group says
the group of power around Putin is no longer the "vertical" theorized
at the time around the same Russian president, but rather a modern Politburo,
modeled on the old top body of the Soviet
Communist Party, in which the head of the Kremlin mediates between clans, often
in conflict with each other. According
to the report, eight are part of the Politburo from political figures to the
world of business: Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, the CEO of the oil giant
Rosneft, Igor Sechin, Sergei Chemezov, general manager of the holding company
Russian Technologies, the presidential chief of staff Sergei
Ivanov and his deputy Vyacheslav Volodin, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobianin,
Gennady Timchenko, head of the powerful oil-trading company Gunvor and the
media tycoon Yury Kovalchuk, also known as the Rupert Murdoch of Russia.
Below
them, a larger group of about 45 "candidates" to become members of
the Politburo, perceived as loyal to the Kremlin and divided into the areas of
"business" and "security forces". Among
these, potential "leaders" have already been identified, in the event
that a serious political crisis should lead to Putin's removal from the
Kremlin. These
include the liberal former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, nationalist Deputy
Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin, and former presidential candidate the oligarch
Mikhail Prokhorov.
"Putin
is the keeper of the lighthouse, but it would be strange to call him a light,"
Alexei Mukhin, director of the Center for political information told the Moscow
Times newspaper.
Despite
the differences between the members of the various clans, most of them - the report
reveals - believes that the protests will not affect political and economic
stability in Russia. The
movement of "white ribbons" - born in December last year in protest
against electoral fraud - has promised to fight corruption and illegal
practices that characterize the country's elite. The
next protest on the program, after the "summer -break" is scheduled for
September 15 in Moscow and other cities around Russia.
15/11/2022 09:40