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Vladimir Putin promised citizens to head the government if the president was chosen by Dmitry Medvedev, the eighth congress of United Russia was supposed to simply approve the decision of the president of the week ago on the choice of Dmitry Medvedev as a successor yesterday. But Vladimir Putin managed to give this procedure a new shine.

Firstly, the president did not delay the answer to his chosen one to become the Prime Minister and said: "If Russian citizens have trusted Medvedev and elect him the president of the country, then I will be ready to lead the government." Secondly, Putin confirmed the invariability of the socio-economic course, which stably disperses inflation: he promised to increase the salary of the military by 18% and state employees by 14% not from September 1, but from February 1, 2008. Just a month before the election. And finally, thirdly, Medvedev announced the need to achieve strengthening the special leadership role of Russia in the world. So, mutual alienation with the West at the first time after Putin’s departure will remain.

Ladies rub the gentlemen

The Bureau of the Supreme Council of United Russia recommended yesterday candidates for the new composition of the State Duma Council. Oleg Morozov remains the first vice speaker. Of his previous colleagues, only Vyacheslav Volodin, Yuri Volkov and Lyubov Sluske managed to maintain their posts. Arthur Chinkarov and Vladimir Pekhtin left their posts. They will lead two of the four fractions of EP.

Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova and the deputy head of the Ministry of Emergencies Nadezhda Gerasimova will include newcomers to the Council. As it became known to Gazeta, the main disputes unfolded around the candidacy of Lyubov Sliska. “Yuri Luzhkov suggested replacing the Slinka with Chinkarov,” the source of Gazeta said to the Council Bureau. “And he naturally got up and stated that he voluntarily refused.” Chilingarov, although he looked frustrated, told the correspondent of Gazeta that the position of member of the Bureau of the Supreme Council to which he was nominated was no less responsible. The love of Slisk, on the contrary, smiling, noted: "The fact that Chilingarov will lead the group inside the faction does not speak of a decrease, because there is no place in a person, but a person’s place."

Pavel Krasheninnikov suggested in an interview with Gazeta that the main work, as before, would fall on Morozov and Volodin, the remaining members of the council will rather perform technical functions.

The second part of the Congress of United Russia did not conceal special surprises, but the number of first persons of the party and the state who came to the guest courtyard was several times higher than the October indicator. In the front row with Dmitry Medvedev and Vyacheslav Volodin, Sergey Sobyanin and Sergey Mironov were adjacent, and the congress was quite comparable with the “song of the year” in the number of cinema and pop stars.

One against, the rest - for

Security measures were exceptional: by the beginning of the event, 100 out of 700 accredited journalists were unable to get to the Gostiny Dvor. The mood of delegates and invited was festive. Their faces shone, everyone hugged, as after a long separation.

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev entered the hall together. They smiled equally broadly into the television cameras and it seemed that they even walked the same. After the protocol words of the party leader Boris Gryzlov, the word was sent to Putin. Having thanked the United Russia for the victory in the Duma elections, he said: "Three years ago I set the task of increasing wages to state employees." And then he cited the most powerful election argument in favor of the candidate Medvedev: the president announced the increase in salaries not by 7, but by 14% and in addition to seven months earlier than the scheduled, from February 1, 2008 (which could turn out for the country - see a certificate). After that, Putin agreed to become the prime minister in the event of the victory of his protege. The speech of Medvedev, who largely copied the President’s manner, was most remembered by the words about the leading role of Russia in the world.

Toward evening, the congress is an absolute majority (478 for, 1 against) voted for the nomination of Dmitry Medvedev as a presidential candidate.

But the delegates and guests commented on Putin’s consent to lead the government with might and main. The leaders of the national republics also looked happy. "Vladimir Putin can find a common language with everyone, and for this you do not need to change something!" - said President Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. His Ingush colleague Murat Zyazikov noted that with this distribution of power, stability to the whole country and United Russia is guaranteed for at least the next 20 years. Only the Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev spoke several out of place about Putin’s premierness: “I guess I’m just not used to it.”

Political technology and hardware methods

However, on conditions of anonymity, delegates evaluated what was happening a little differently. One of the high -ranking United Russia said in an interview with Gazeta: “This is a competent political stream pursuing two goals. The first is to provide a successor rating during the campaign: voting for Medvedev in the Kremlin, you will vote for Putin in the White House. The second goal is to prevent Putin from becoming a lame duck until the last presidential day. Small ".

A similar opinion is shared by the expert of the German Council on foreign policy Alexander RAR. “This is not yet a denouement of the entire intrigue. The transition to post -Putin Russia has not been completed, and in January - February the next changes may happen,” he told the correspondent of the newspaper. “But this will not concern the Constitution, as in the Ukrainian version. Medvedev will become a strong president, and Putin as the prime minister will not pull on new powers.”

If the outgoing president simply transfers an electoral resource to his successor, then the question of a new configuration of power remains open. Indeed, according to the director of the Institute of Applied Policy of Olga Krystanovskaya, in Russia the premier chair itself is a dummy, it is filled with a person. “No one scolded Mikhail Fradkov, scolded his ministers. Everything acts on the principle of“ Plus Personal Personality, ”she emphasized.

Perhaps that is why one of the main questions is who will be responsible for inflation and economic failures. Member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Center of Carnegie Alexei Malashenko believes that the most important now is in hardware redistribution of functions. “The situation itself is piquant. As a rule, the prime minister was a switchman, and the president was an intermediary. It is not easy to be at the same time as a national leader and culprit of prices,” said Malashenko. “Putin should be successful in everything, and this is difficult in Russia at the premiere.”

12/17/2007 / Olga Pavlikova, Madina Shavlokhova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 237 dated December 18, 2007.