...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...as part of extensive reports on alleged fraud in a Dec 4 parliamentary election.
Maxim Kovalsky said on Tuesday he had been dismissed as editor of Kommersant-Vlast over the magazine's Monday edition, which included several articles examining alleged electoral violations favouring Prime Minister Putin's United Russia party. The dismissal appeared to serve notice that Putin still holds vast influence over Russian media, despite mass protests against his rule and a decline in his ruling party's support at the election. "The reason is the issue about the election," Kovalsky told Rooters. He said he believed the Kremlin had put pressure on Kommersant Publishing House owner Alisher Usmanov, a billionaire metals tycoon, and that he had no regrets about the publication.
"I acted absolutely consciously and believe I did the right thing," he said. A spokeswoman for Metalloinvest, a company owned by Usmanov, confirmed that Kovalsky and the head of the magazine's parent company Kommersant-Holding, Andrei Galiyev, had been fired. Asked for comment, the spokeswoman sent a report on gazeta.ru, a news site also owned by Usmanov, that cited Usmanov as saying unspecified material that appeared in recent issues of Kommersant-Vlast had violated journalistic ethics. "These materials border on petty hooliganism," the news site quoted Usmanov, a billionaire who is part-owner of the London soccer club Arsenal, as saying. It reported that he was considering suing Kovalsky.
Kommersant Publishing House director Demyan Kudryavtsev said he had tendered his resignation because he felt responsible for the "unacceptable" publication, Interfax news agency reported.
"Please don't kill me!"
It was not immediately clear whether his resignation had been accepted. The shakeup at Kommersant, whose publications include a leading daily by the same name, followed protests by tens of thousands of Russians over alleged election fraud in the biggest opposition rallies of Putin's 12-year rule.