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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin Vows 'Non-Party' Presidency for Russia
2012-03-09
[An Nahar] Vladimir Putin
...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...
 vowed Thursday to rule Russia as a "non-party" leader when he assumes power for a third term as president amid a wave of protests challenging his rule for the first time in 12 years.

"Today, it would probably be appropriate to recall that the president is a non-party figure," Putin told outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in a televised meeting at the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort on the Black Sea.

"I will be working in the interests of the entire Russian people, irrespective of their party affiliations," Putin promised.

The former KGB spy is the leader of the ruling United Russia party that won a fraud-tainted parliamentary election in December that originally sparked the protests against Putin's era of domination.

Putin is not officially a card-carrying member of United Russia despite chairing the party. He has also recently attempted to distance himself from the group amid speculation that it may soon be either disbanded or reformed.

The idea of Putin presiding over Russia for an extended six-year term after a 2000-2008 presidency has stirred protests that are set to continue in Moscow on Saturday with a rally organizers hope can draw 50,000 people.
Posted by:Fred

#3  Russians have a very bad associations with the word "Party".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2012-03-09 10:47  

#2  Little or nothing. A large number of Russians still embrace the concept of a "Vohzd" (leader)(typically the polite address for Lenin and Stalin, though it fell out of favor with Khrushchev), be it a Czar or a General Party Secretary.

Historically, Russia was ruled by the Czar over what amounted to a senate of major landholders. If the Czar was weak, the landholders would pick up the slack.

This resulted in a miscalculation on their part once, with Peter I "The Great" (1672-1725). When he traveled to Europe to steal technology, mostly shipbuilding technology, the landholders assumed he was weak, so tried a coup. But Peter had a competent first minister, who arrested and held them for his return.

He used a sword to personally cut off the heads of the traitors.

To his credit, he did build a navy, and because of his actions, by the turn of the 20th Century, Russia had become the world's fourth largest industrial power, a huge accomplishment in that they began for the most part from an almost medieval state.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2012-03-09 10:02  

#1  What's the difference between "Non-Party" and "One-Party"? I wonder.
Posted by: Willy   2012-03-09 03:50  

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