Autumn President

Corruption Cycle Cycle

Autumn President.

The story of how Vladimir Putin will stay with us forever

Mikhail Rubin, January 29, 2020

The new Constitution, proposed by Putin, gives him three options for further employment and will allow him to influence the situation in the country and after 2024. The “Project” tells how and why the Kremlin decided on a lightning-fast constitutional and government reform.

Putin is leaving

More recently, public conversations about the possible departure of President Putin’s resignation could cost a policy of position. When in the spring of 2018, one of the leaders of United Russia, Deputy Andrei Turchak, Secretary of the General Council of the Party, former TV presenter Evgeny Reveenko allowed himself to say, and even then indirectly that after 2024 there would be a new president in Russia, the Party of power was outraged and reported by Revenko in a humiliating form. “He was explained the inconsistency of the views of“ United Russia ”expressed by him and was strongly recommended to abstain from rash public statements, all the more clearly contradicting the party’s position,” the interlocutor said in “United Russia” to the Rain, which published the words of Revenko, and then completely deprived of almost all powers - he was planned to be resigned, but to resign, but to resign, but to resign, but to resign, but he was resigned, but to resign, but he was resigned, but to resign, but he was put to retire. So far, they have only deprived the cuisine of the media.

The situation has radically changed by the fall of 2019, when in informal conversations, officials began to directly tell the correspondents of the “project”: Putin would not remain the president for the fifth period - for this it would be necessary to remove the restriction on stay in power from the Constitution, and in the Kremlin they work out other options for his employment after 2024. “There is no doubt that Vladimir Vladimirovich will leave after 2024. He showed everything with his example of 2008 - then Putin left the post of president for four years, ”a high -ranking Kremlin official said in September 2019 in September 2019.

Between these two events, moods changed not just like that: during this period, the president began to tell his environment about fatigue, and the officials gradually received instructions from the head of state to prepare his departure, should be from the stories of a familiar president and interlocutor in the Kremlin. With which composition and when exactly Putin began to discuss his new position is not known exactly. But at the end of 2018, the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin at a meeting of parliamentarians with the president proposed to think about changing the constitution, and a month later - over the expansion of the powers of the parliament. He did this at the request of the country's leadership - he publicly prepared Russians for changes in the law, the interlocutors of the “project” in the Duma say, and the source in the Kremlin calls a specific person who asked Volodin, the head of the AP Anton Vaino. However, at that moment there was still no decision on how to change the basic law, it should be from the words of the interlocutor in the Kremlin.

Only in the summer of 2019, the head of the presidential administration Anton Vaino and his first deputy Sergei Kiriyenko received a clear assignment from the head of state: to prepare amendments to the Constitution based on the fact that he was changing work after 2024, says the Kremlin official. It was over the past six months that these officials have prepared options for future places of Putin’s work, says the Kremlin official.

Putin comes

On January 14, on the eve of the President’s message to the Federal Assembly, Vaino gathered the chief editors of large Russian media in the Kremlin, two people familiar with the content of this meeting told. This is a traditional event at which media leaders are usually introduced to the content of Putin’s speech - thanks to this, they can think in advance how to better reflect the president’s words in the materials of their publications. However, this time the mains were told only about the social part of the message - the one where the president spoke of maternal capital and healthcare development. The text of the second part of the speech, where Putin proposed changing the constitution, was kept secret to the last. At least, the interlocutor of the “project” in the Kremlin claims that only a narrow circle saw this part: the president, Vaino, his first deputy Kirienko and Alexei Gromov, as well as the head of the presidential reference Dmitry Kalimulin, who wrote the text of speech.

Several interlocutors of the “project” confirm that almost all those invited to the message, even the highest -ranking, looked surprised when the president announced amendments to the Constitution.

Their meaning came down to the fact that the next president will no longer be able to possess the power of the current one - he will be able to run for only two terms, without amendments to the “in a row”, and will share his powers with the Duma, the Federation Council and the State Council formed by him. Thus, the authors of the amendments created three versions of future employment for Putin, says the interlocutor in the Kremlin. None of them obliges Putin to engage in the current management of the country, but allows, if necessary, to influence certain decisions and generally keep the situation under control.

Three Putin employment options

The head of the State Council

In the summer, one of the informed interlocutors of the “project” in an informal conversation said: introducing himself and signing letters, he recently prefers to emphasize membership in the State Council from all his posts. And he explained - this body will become more and more significant.

Then it sounded strange, because the State Council until today was an advisory structure without specific possibilities. It includes governors, speakers of both chambers of parliament and leaders of the Duma fractions, and its authority is to give advice to the head of state.

But in the altered constitution it will already be written that this authority will determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policy and the coordination of the work of all authorities. Such a neoplasm - a certain superstructure over all branches of power, determining the priorities of development - most of all resembles the Security Council of Kazakhstan, whose decisions are required to execute any authorities.

In 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned from the post of President of Kazakhstan, he retained the post of head of the Security Council, thereby leaving the leaders of the management and the status of Elbasy, that is, the leader of the nation. The Kremlin very carefully studied the experience of a neighboring country, and it seemed successful to everyone, says an expert who regularly participate in meetings in the presidential administration. True, in Russia the State Council will still form a new president, and who could become Putin in the council - it will be clear only from a special law that the Kremlin has yet to be developed.

Speaker of the Federation Council

Before amending the Constitution, few people perceived the upper house of parliament seriously. This is evidenced by a simple fact - the current speaker Valentina Matvienko, formally to the third person in the country, did not say anything in advance about amendments to the Constitution, says her friend. According to the results of the event, there was a feeling that she was surprised or even offended, says a person who was present at the message.

Now the status of this authority will also be increased. The president, when appointing all law enforcement ministers, will be obliged to consult with the SF, and the same body now gives the good to resign the heads of all courts. It is clear that at first any new president will appoint only those security forces who will arrange Putin if he wants to lead the Federation Council after the resignation, the interlocutor, close to the leadership of the Kremlin administration.

In favor of this version, this fact is comically speaks of a comically: in the new constitution of the members of the Federation Council, they are finally called the "senators of the Russian Federation." Until now, these people have repeatedly complained that the “deputies” are sitting in the State Duma, and the constitution calls them “members”. The witness of such complaints once was a senior federal employee with whom the project was talking. Now this injustice is eliminated, and members of the upper house will be called as honorable as their American colleagues.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court

According to amendments, now the Constitutional Court at the request of the president may confirm the constitutionality of laws adopted by parliament. Theoretically, this will give the future chairman the opportunity to participate in the legislative process and, if necessary, cancel or slow down the objectionable law.

Why amendments are needed now

It was important for Putin to create an opportunity for his future employment, while his rating is on top and he manages to launch a new political system himself, the interlocutor, who regularly participates in meetings by the leadership of the Kremlin administration, reasoned. At the same time, it is not profitable for him to disclose the option of his future employment - constant secrecy allows you to keep the situation under control, including looking after the near environment, the former federal official believes.

In order for the amendments to vote as many citizens as possible - the Kremlin organizes all -Russian voting in support of the amendments, populism added populism to the list of constitutional innovations: Putin proposed to establish the minimum wage not lower than the subsistence minimum, regularly increase pensions, approve the rule of the Russian Constitution over international treaties and prohibit officials to have foreign citizenship, explains the interlocutor close to the Kremlin.

Two interlocutors of the “project”, close to the Kremlin, also transfer another, conspiracy the version, why amendments are now introduced, four years before the planned expiration of Putin’s powers: the president wanted to be in time for the US president’s elections, fearing that democrats will come to power and increase pressure on Russia. And so, by the time of the possible victory of the Democrats, “all laws will already work, and there will be no great sense to criticize them,” says one of the interlocutors. Partly, the former high -ranking official believes in this well familiar with Putin: “The president showed the enemies of Russia in advance that the country's course would not change after his departure.” The interlocutor of the “Project” in the Kremlin denies this version: the Kremlin worked out all the changes for a long time in order to accept them in front of the Duma elections of 2021.

The successor leaves

Having created uncertainty with his place of work, the president immediately confused the environment in an equally important issue - about the future successor. As soon as he read out the message to the parliament, he almost immediately went to talk one on one with Prime Minister Medvedev, whom many considered the president’s surrounded by inertia the main contender for the presidential chair.

Putin and Medvedev did not give the contents of this conversation to third parties, but the interlocutors in the Kremlin and United Russia, who told the “project” about the fact of this conversation, are convinced that it was there that Putin informed the head of government - he must resign. However, a familiar prime minister does not believe in this, assuming that he knew everything in advance. The former high -ranking official, well acquainted with Putin and Medvedev, answered the corresponding question with a smile: “It was not Dmitry Anatolyevich who wanted to leave. It will be more correct to say: Vladimir Vladimirovich wanted it. ” There were many grounds for such a desire.

Already in May 2018, Kremlin officials, having provided Putin's triumphal election for a fourth term, faced an unexpected phenomenon - the authorities began to fall. Sociologists who measure public opinion for the Kremlin even clearly tracked the moment when this happened: immediately after Medvedev’s reassignment by the prime minister and the actual rejection of his government, says a person familiar with the results of closed polls. Since then, the level of trust in all branches of power has declined, and the prime minister led this movement down, especially after his government took responsibility for raising the retirement age. As a result, Medvedev’s trust fell less than 7% . This would not be so critical, but the pension reform and the government pulled down Putin and Putin, its electoral rating has fallen sharply in the summer of 2018 and has not grown to the triumphal numbers of 2014-2018 since then.

In addition, Medvedev is the leader of United Russia, and in 2021 he was to lead the party in power to the State Duma elections. Several participants in the Kremlin meetings have claimed that the presidential administration was reported to the leadership of the presidential: at such a pace, the United Russia will not be able to get the majority in parliament in the elections.

In parallel, Medvedev himself gave reasons for reflection on the effectiveness of his work. At closed meetings, he refused to solve acute problems, says a regular participant in government meetings. He describes it like this:

-First Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov and the “social” Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova periodically argued among themselves on the issue of budget expenses. But Medvedev did not try to solve disputes, he asked them to first understand each other, and then go out to him with a specific decision.

A friend of one of the key ministers confirms: government members could not count on the help of the prime minister, on many important issues they had to wait for Putin's audience.

As a result, by the fall of last year in the government, the Kremlin and Duma, they started talking about permissions in the White House. True, the sources did not assume that we were talking about the resignation of the entire cabinet, but they precisely announced the dismissal of three ministers - healthcare, sports and digital development. "Project" reported this in October.

Being true to himself, Putin chose the most unexpected moment for Medvedev’s resignation. At the end of December, the prime minister congratulated the employees of the government apparatus on the upcoming New Year and talked a lot about plans for the future, the participants in that meeting told the project. From this, the officials concluded: the premiere remains to work. Therefore, having learned about the resignation, many were very surprised. “The announcement has become news for me,” Oleg Osipov, spokesman for Medvedev, confirmed the “project”.

They did not know about the change of government in the State Duma. Immediately after the announcement of the message, the leadership of the Lower Chamber calmly gathered at a meeting of the Council of the Duma - to discuss the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the president. At this moment, reports of Medvedev’s resignation appeared on the feeds of news agencies, and the Duma chiefs were so surprised that they asked the government representative at the Lower House to check the reliability of the information. He went to his office to call the White House, but there no one knew about what happened, says the interlocutor in the Duma.

However, a few hours later, the president called the State Duma of State Duma Volodin, the interlocutor, familiar with the process of appointing the head of government, says, and soon Mikhail Mishustin, candidate for the premiere, arrived at the parliament. However, contrary to the unspoken tradition of recent times, Putin did not come publicly to present his parliament. This may mean that while the president is not ready to share his rating with the new prime minister, the interlocutor in the lower house evaluates this.

All this did not take the confidence of Mishustin. The very next day, the Duma approved him as a government chairman without a single vote against. At the exit from the hall, he was met by the head of the Presidential Security Service Alexei Rubezhnaya, taking a new prime minister under his status security, says the interlocutor in the lower house.

The battle of the successors

Mishustin formed the government in a few days, during which the words “defeat” and “capture” began to constantly use in the White House. The new prime minister arrived there with his team and with the firm intention to get rid of a significant part of the old.

The chiefs were quickly kicked out, for example, to the honored deputy head of the government apparatus Andrei Loginov Dali Dali to free the office - this is what three interlocutors in the White House say. “No one rushed,” Loginov himself told the project. However, the three other interlocutors in the White House say that almost all the leaders of the apparatus were driven out of the offices. And the dismissed ministers were deprived of cars, so for the first time in a long time they had to go home by taxi, the interlocutors of the “project” in the White House say.

Instead of the dismissed apparatchiks, Mishustin appointed people who have long been checked and will be engaged first of all by his image. So, Leonid Levin was one of the deputy heads of the device. He was the head of the Duma Media Committee, but the main thing was the creator of the Privy Counselor PR company, it was she who was engaged in the image of Mishustin as the head of the Federal Tax Service and prepared public speeches to him, knows the interlocutor in the White House.

Мишустин вообще всерьез озабочен своим пиаром , рассказывает его знакомый и подтверждает собеседник в аппарате Белого дома. Существует версия, что его учителем в этих вопросах выступил мэр Москвы Сергей Собянин. Сотрудники «Яндекса» пересказывают друг другу непроверенную историю: якобы в середине 2010-х Собянин и Мишустин парились в бане, и там глава столицы объяснил главному налоговику, что нужно следить через поисковик «Яндекса», не появился ли в сети компромат, который при необходимости нужно удалить . Эту историю «Проекту» рассказал один из сотрудников компании. С тех пор у Мишустина есть целый штат сотрудников, которые следят за появлением негатива про него в интернете . Пресс-секретарь премьера не ответил на вопросы «Проекта».

Мишустин и Собянин как раз добились очень высокого представительства в новом кабинете:

Ставленники Мишустина

Дмитрий Григоренко

вице-премьер

Алексей Оверчук

вице-премьер

Victoria Abramchenko

вице-премьер

Дмитрий Чернышенко

вице-премьер

Ставленники Собянина

Marat Khusnullin

вице-премьер

Максим Решетников

Minister of Economic Development

Vladimir Yakushev

министр строительства и ЖКХ

Dmitry Kobylkin

министр природных ресурсов и экологии

Valery Falkov

министр образования

У Медведева все намного хуже

Konstantin Chuychenko

Minister of Justice

Из соратников бывшего премьера в кабинете министров остался только бывший однокурсник Константин Чуйченко, который вместо поста вице-премьера с понижением пересел в кресло министра юстиции. Еще один знакомый бывшего президента Александр Коновалов правительство покинул.

Это могло бы означать конец президентских амбиций Медведева, но в день отставки Путин сделал его своим заместителем в Совбезе. Это теоретически дает ему возможность вернуть утраченный рейтинг, делая заявления на популярную у избирателей тему внешней политики , говорит собеседник «Проекта» в Кремле.

Так, всего за несколько дней в России не осталось ни одного человека, который мог хотя бы предположить, кем и как будет управляться страна через четыре года. Кроме самого Владимира Путина.