- Writer: AFP
- Published: 7/08/2009 at 12:00 AM
Vladimir who? When an ailing Boris Yeltsin appointed a shadowy intelligence boss prime minister on August 9, 1999, he hardly seemed the man to shape Russia's post-Soviet destiny.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks during the launch of a book on Putin and Judo in Tokyo on May 12, 2009. Japan and Russia have signed a nuclear energy pact that will pave the way for contracts worth billions of dollars, the head of Russia's state nuclear said. AFP PHOTO/Koji Sasahara/POOL
Vladimir Putin was the fourth prime minister in less than two years to be named under the increasingly wayward Yeltsin and came to power in a period of political chaos when the break-up of the country seemed a real danger.
He was virtually unknown in Russia, let alone abroad.
Yet Putin -- now back as prime minister after eight years in the Kremlin -- on Sunday marks a full decade in power after making a decisive contribution to Russia's history after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He clipped the wings of the once all-powerful oligarchs, waged a controversial war to destroy Chechen separatists, oversaw an economic boom and never shied from upsetting the West.
He is lauded by nationalist politicians for restoring Russian self-respect but has become a bete noire of rights activists. However few dispute the importance of Putin in shaping modern Russia.
"He has historic importance as the country stopped moving on a track towards democratic progress and also went on a path towards confrontation with the world," said Lev Ponamarev, one of Russia's best known human rights defenders.
"Under Yeltsin it was possible to say that the construction of a democracy was, bit-by-bit, moving forwards. With the arrival of Putin in power there has been a systematic move backwards," he told AFP.
But for pro-Kremlin political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, "Putin is without doubt a great man who has achieved more than even he intended."
"Putin marked himself down in history by reconciling the people with the new state of Russia," said Pavlovsky, a Kremlin consultant under Putin and head of the Foundation for Effective Policy.
"Ten years ago, the people were split and half the population still believed they lived in the Soviet Union. Putin changed this. In essence he created the conception of a new nation."
Basking in the confidence of a man who appears to have unchallenged control of his country, Putin has in recent days undertaken some extraordinary media stunts that would be unimaginable for any other world leader.
These included diving to the floor of the world's deepest lake -- Lake Baikal in Siberia -- aboard a mini-submarine in a four-hour voyage breathlessly covered by Russian state television.
Just two days later, state media photographed Putin showing off a muscular naked torso while on horseback as he rode Indiana Jones-style through the Siberian steppe.
Another image showed Putin, 56, swimming arms akimbo and gasping for air with a butterfly stroke and bulging biceps that would impress US superstar Michael Phelps.
These antics were clearly aimed reinforcing Putin's hardman image, a crucial ingredient for his popularity in a country long used to the rule of strongmen.
Perhaps the turning point for Putin was on the night of September 4, 2004 when he appeared on television after the siege by Chechen militants of Beslan school that left 331 children and adults dead.
With Russia shattered and humiliated, Putin looked back with nostalgia to the Soviet Union which he described as a "great state... unfortunately not compatible with the modern world."
And he bluntly acknowledged that the new Russia had "showed weakness" in dealing with the challenges of the modern world and it was now time to show more toughness.
"The weak get beaten," Putin said.
Only the original Russian -- "A slabykh - byut" -- can convey the terseness of the earthy street talk that is Putin's trademark and harks back to his tough upbringing in a communal apartment in Leningrad.
Putin may have surrendered control of the Kremlin to his protege Dmitry Medvedev and returned to the prime minister's office but few doubt who really pulls the strings in Russia.
According to the survey by the Levada Centre to mark his 10 years in power, 63 percent of Russians think it is good for Russia that most of the power is concentrated in Putin's hands.
Showing that the economy has been the main issue on people's minds in the last years, 39 percent say his greatest achievement has been raising the quality of life or the country's economic development.
No wonder, therefore, that Putin has sought to portray himself as a frontline fighter against the economic crisis which has brought the dynamic growth Russia enjoyed over the last years to an abrupt end.
That dynamic growth could be restored, say some, just in time for Putin to run again for the top Kremlin job in 2012.
Read more!
0 comments:
Post a Comment