Candidate Vladimir Putin has left the opposition with no chance. Five days before Sunday's elections, he has radically restructured the government. The days remaining before the plebiscite will be devoted by the press not to minor informational pretexts promoted by Putin's rivals (such as whether the abstract head of the Russian state should be depicted in trousers or a skirt, whether Orthodoxy should be made the state religion, etc.), but to pressing questions about the structure of the new cabinet.

Putin appointed 15 new ministers, half of whom were old, and dismissed the most odious holders of ministerial portfolios. Suffice it to say that Putin did not take either Leonid Reiman or Mikhail Lesin into his new life. The fate of the chairman of the Federal Securities Commission Igor Kostikov is unclear - his commission has been abolished, and who will head the new financial service controlled by the prime minister is a big question.

The ministers of the new government will be significantly more important than the ministers of the "Kas'yanov school". For their impeccable service, the St. Petersburg reformers Alexei Kudrin and German Gref received a solid raise: Kudrin was assigned the tax service, and Gref - the customs service. Gref, in addition to everything else, will now be responsible for privatization and for managing state property. A solid haul.

Despite Putin's promises to consult with the ruling party about the composition of the cabinet, United Russia can only list one, albeit important, deputy prime minister's seat as its asset. However, calling Alexander Zhukov a "United Russia member" is a stretch. Zhukov found himself in the ruling party only six months ago.

Despite the unprecedented power of the president, the new government turned out to be a coalition. The new head of the government apparatus, Dmitry Kozak, will oversee the cabinet from inside the White House. But another St. Petersburg intellectual, Andrei Fursenko, instead of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, which is fraught with large investment projects, will be forced to do the most thankless job of reforming domestic science and education. The main winner from the dismemberment of the Ministry of Industry and Science was former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, who has served Russia since the Yeltsin era.

The new government also has a delegate from the oligarchy. The empire of Alexey Mordashov has delegated the fourth super-minister to the White House. The former deputy general director of the company "Severstaltrans" Igor Levitin will take over the management from the former ministers of transport, communications and communications.

In democratic states it is customary to wait for the will of the voters. But who cares about this democracy? At least not the new ministers.

Vladimir Fedorin

NUMBER OF THE WEEK: 17. Palace coup