From the first person

On September 19, Vladimir Putin to the question of whether he will participate in the 2018 presidential election, replied: "I do not exclude." Who was addressed to?

Putin's stagnation promises to be longer than Brezhnevsky. Moscow, 2011, opposition rally

About the possibility of bypassing the Secretary General of Brezhnev in the duration of his stay in power (he served in the main office of the country for 18 years) and close to Generalissimo Stalin, who reigned for almost thirty years, Putin said at the final meeting of the Valdai club, where not only those who just love Putin and love him very much, but also some of the leaders of the opposition (there are four of the total. man). The president made his statement in a light flirt mode with the former French Prime Minister Francois Fiion, who also amushes himself with presidential ambitions. An hour later, when the journalists already calculated that after the fourth presidential term and the fifth in power, in 2026, Putin would be seventy-four, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov suddenly decided to correct his boss: the question of a new term was “untimely and irrelevant”, “since the presidential term of Vladimir Putin only began. Meanwhile, the question was asked by Putin himself - Fiion (the Frenchman left the imperious office in 2012, and the presidential term of the current president of France began exactly at the same time, when the current Putin), which he discarded the neighbor on the stage, no one pulled for Putin: he said exactly what he wanted to say. Question: Why? And to whom?

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All this required a public shout: “Do not wait! I'm forever! I take a walk at your funeral "

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The answer seems obvious - primarily the Kremlin clans, which are gnawing inside and with each other, some with apprehension glancing at Putin weakened in the last months, others - trying on his power. Back disease, surgery, the need to take painkillers, long imprisonment in Novo-Ogarevo surrounded mainly people in uniform and with information from red daddy with encryptions, inevitable restrictions related to the disease, to physical activity, first of all, to which Putin is so located, the fear of old age, and fatigue from the duties of the tsar (gossipers claim that Putin is now being taken to chambers to cameras Once a week, breaking the picture then into plots and days) - all this required a public shout: “Do not wait! I'm forever! I take a walk at your funeral. ” Whether or not-this grandmother said in two, the economy goes down, the barrel-too, buy loyalty and there will be very few money-hence the affectionate “Lesha” and the public “you” (“these are questions for you”), addressed to the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin in the presence of the final meeting of the club “Valdai” And then a private dinner for 18 people. Behind the amusing cheerfulness and relaxedness (however, when the hall of 300 people looks at you with adoration, even if ostentatious, and yesterday’s critics ask questions, bending at the knees, this gives confidence and strength), the fear is visible: to whom it is not a former colonel of the KGB to know how dangerous it is when people around you and overlapping the entrance to all others go out of control. The business of Sergei Guriev, as well as the miraculous liberation of Navalny, is the bright evidence and the little that came out from under the carpet.

But the chef’s adjustment from the press secretary looks much less understandable. Who is the addressee? Is it not Prime Minister Medvedev, who exactly two years ago, September 24, 2011, voluntarily gave the presidential scepter to become an object of universal contempt and ridicule? What was promised in return? “You are still young, in 2018 you will become president again”? If so - but that Medvedev is seriously sure that the return to the Kremlin is reality (only the lazy does not speak about this in the government building on the embankment) - Peskov simply saves the chef from unnecessary problems as the old servant protects the owner from the tantrum of the abandoned wife: “Well, said. Excepted. Happens".

The racing racing continues. We’ll stock up on popcorn - it is unlikely to wait long for the denouement.

Photo: Alexander Weinstein/Kommersant