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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin to stay in power beyond 2008
2005-03-17
One year after his re-election as president, Vladimir Putin appears destined to remain in power beyond 2008, and seems to have support from the general public to do so. Talk about keeping Putin in power is swirling through the halls of the Kremlin, the Federation Council and the State Duma. Little of the talk has made it onto the public record, but Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov acknowledged in an interview published in Izvestia on March 2 that Putin might stay if there is "a real danger that a new fuehrer with a fascist-type, nationalist ideology" might win the presidency. This dovetails with speculation in some circles that Putin will be unable to make good on his promise to find a successor and will attempt to extend his own reign -- possibly by scaring up support at home and abroad by warning of a power grab by hard-line nationalists.

"The name of Putin's successor is Vladimir Putin," said Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst at the Indem think tank. "The whole chain of power in Russia has been created by him and is meant to suit him. It cannot be broken or passed over to someone else."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#5  Or else he's laying the groundwork to declare a permanent state of emergency, during which he will take on more and more power. All hail Tsar Vladimir I...
Posted by: Jonathan   2005-03-17 5:34:20 PM  

#4  All depends on oil prices. If they stay high, then Russia's mismanagement and incompetence will continue to be hidden by huge inflows of hard currency. If they were to fall sharply, as they did in 1997-1998, then the rotten edifice will collapse again as it did then, and Putin will be booted out.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex)   2005-03-17 5:03:27 PM  

#3  He has so effectively eliminated the competition, now that he *wants* somebody to fill his shoes, nobody is left. About his only remaining alternative, if he wants any semblance of democracy to remain, would be to break off from his own party, then start another party to run against it. The new party would lose the election, but under his leadership, he might bring it up to high enough standards to compete with his old party. It won't happen.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-03-17 4:17:56 PM  

#2  "Putin to stay in power beyond 2008"

Where's the suprise meter?
Posted by: Hunter   2005-03-17 2:19:48 PM  

#1  
there is "a real danger that a new fuehrer with a fascist-type, nationalist ideology" might win the presidency
Looks like the probability is approaching 1.
Posted by: someone   2005-03-17 2:06:29 PM  

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