"Two Cool Guys"

The screening of potential successors to the president continued at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum

The St. Petersburg Economic Forum is known not only as the most significant platform for discussing global economic issues and concluding billion-dollar deals. The forum is a place where President Vladimir Putin always comes. And it is at the forum that the next presentation of his potential successors may take place. If last year both Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev spoke, and the latter’s speech seemed programmatic, then at the 2007 forum this role was played by Sergei Ivanov.

The keynote speech of the former defense minister was even scheduled a day earlier than the speech of Vladimir Putin himself. The first key meeting of the forum “Russia. Scenarios 2020” began with a forty-minute speech by Mr. Ivanov.

In his opinion, by 2020 Russia will become an open, democratic state , where civil society institutions will play a key role in making important decisions for the country. In terms of GDP, the country will be among the top five countries in the world, and at least 50% of citizens will belong to the middle class. Russia will move towards an era of prosperity in close integration with Europe, but it will follow a different path, different from the path of European civilization. “There are examples in world history when countries turned into developed ones, but they did not always do it in the same way as European countries,” explained Mr. Ivanov. True, I did not share specific recipes.

President Vladimir Putin addressed the forum participants the next day. “History has repeatedly and convincingly proven that the situation in the surrounding countries in the Eurasian space largely depends on the state of affairs in Russia. And its temporary weakening inevitably resulted in instability in the region,” he said. The President recalled the thesis about the so-called “idea countries” that was voiced at last year’s forum. “Russia is exactly the kind of country that strives to build a fair society based primarily on moral values. A country that deeply analyzes strategic processes in the world and aims to strengthen trust between peoples and countries,” he emphasized. A kind of response to the West, which is talking about the beginning of a new “Cold War,” was the words of President Putin that “Russia is open to the implementation of the most ambitious joint projects . We hope that joint work and partnership will allow the Eurasian continent to truly become a space of peace, trust and cooperation.”

Mr. Medvedev held "practical" events such as participation in the presentation of the Southern Federal District and meetings with foreign investors. Sergei Ivanov met with the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Jean Lemierre, and also participated in the signing of a major agreement between Aeroflot and the Boieng company .

Last year the situation was somewhat different. Then both potential contenders for the main position in the country made presentations at the forum in St. Petersburg, and it was Mr. Medvedev’s report that looked “presidential.” Sergei Ivanov then spoke mainly about the development of industry with a strong emphasis on the defense industry, which was logical for a person , who served as Minister of Defense at the time.

However, many analysts believe that such a distribution of roles between the “main successors” at the current St. Petersburg forum does not at all mean that Vladimir Putin has cooled off towards one of the possible replacements, but is connected with the range of topics they supervise. The national projects supervised by Dmitry Medvedev in the government are very important for the country, but are not very interesting for foreign participants.

However, if in Russia they believe that we will definitely have to choose between two successors, then in the West there is an opinion that there is enough space on the Russian throne for everyone. Daniel Thorneley, senior vice president of the Economist Group, speaking at the plenary session, said: “Here are two cool guys sitting (Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev - Ed. ), one of them will be president, and maybe they will to lead the country together." In addition, Mr. Thorneli warmly advised taking Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin with him into the future government. However, before this, in his opinion, the following must be done: “Take him to the darkest room in the Kremlin and hammer into his head that more money needs to be spent on education and health care.”

Vera SITNINA, St. Petersburg - Moscow