Dog on the hay

Each visit abroad of the new Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is turning for the receiving side into a real protocol test. Who is he, this harsh person who leaves the plane with the inscription "Russia"? More than the prime minister? Less than the president? Just a leader-how excitively was the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Timoshenko at a meeting in Minsk?

By the way, Mrs. Tymoshenko, who also feels “more than the prime minister”, tried to solve the task of her own foreign policy activity simply-introducing her own diplomat, Deputy Prime Minister Grigory Nemyr, who is engaged in the international activity of the head of government. During the days of Vladimir Putin in Paris, it became known that the Russian prime minister could follow the path of the Orange Princess and invite one of the most experienced Russian diplomats, an ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakova to the government. If Ushakov’s appointment will take place, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, as well as his Ukrainian colleague Vladimir Obryzko, will remain working with the president, and they will perceive the government diplomat abroad as another foreign minister. The confusion in foreign policy is finally equal to the confusion in the domestic one-and what is nice, the world surrounding Russia will be included in this confusion.

The arrival of Vladimir Putin to France - his first trip for the "real" border after traveling to Belarus - demonstrated both Western confusion and Western gallantry. The French, on the one hand, tried not to retreat from the protocol - good, unlike his predecessors as the prime minister, Putin decided to make a state visit to Paris - and on the other hand, to demonstrate that they accept a special guest. Putin was really worth evaluating this demonstration of respect for his informal status: after a stinging replica of the best friend of Russian workers Alexander Lukashenko that he still cannot get used to the fact that Vladimir Putin is no longer his colleague, the reluctance of Nicolas Sarkozy should not notice this expensive.

But still it is necessary to understand Sarkozy and forgive Lukashenko. Alexander Grigoryevich is more included in the all-Russian context and can assume that the president is still the president, and the prime minister, even so outstanding, is sorry. In addition, Lukashenko himself had long held all the necessary referendums, changed the constitution of his beloved homeland and does not need any Medvedev. He himself is both Putin and Medvedev - and he will never understand why the former colleague decided to walk around his own former residence.

And Sarkozy is unlikely to ever think of changing the Constitution of France-here God forbid to re-elect for a second term. Therefore, he does not even understand the former Russian colleague and does not consider the former, especially since all Western newspapers, magazines, experts and special services assured politicians and ordinary inhabitants that Putin is forever. And the main task of Nicolas Sarkozy, like any Western president, to whom the new Russian prime minister will visit him so that he does not notice that he is no longer the head of state, and at the same time not to offend the new Russian president with emphasized his predecessor.

Behind all this protocol tinsel, as always, is the answer to the main question - who nevertheless determines the Russian foreign policy course. If Russia is for two, then foreign policy too? Where to go to poor presidents? Prior to the appearance of Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin, it was the president traditionally dealt with the definition of the country's main foreign policy tasks, and the last Putin premieres were not particularly fond of diplomacy. Now the president seems to be also included in foreign policy activities-he writes letters to his longtime friend Yushchenko, travels with visits, is going to preside the Russia-Es summit. But the prime minister is trying to discuss strategic issues during his trips, with all his appearance, protocols and the agenda of the day, convincing that you need to communicate with him. Nicolas, Comrade Old Man and other politicians who are interested in Russia, have something to think about.