Strange things are happening. Those rumours about a split between president Medvedev and prime minister Putin, about a rivalry between the holders of the two most influential political positions of Russia, seem to be acquiring some foundation. And this is all due to Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow. He is quite a controversial figure, and anything that concerns him can’t help but being a controversy. Quick facts to know about him: he has been mayor of Moscow since 1992, is married to Russia’s richest woman Elena Baturina, his birthday is on the 21st of September and he is a passionate beekeeper.
All these facts (yes, even his beekeeping activity) are at centre of the wide debate that is inflaming the Russian political scene quite recently.
It all started when Medvedev decided to stop the building of a motorway that would have cut across the forest of Khimki (see below). Luzhkov didn’t like the move and wrote an article published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, in which he criticised the way the president was handling the question and called for Putin to return to the presidency. The events that followed are the ‘strange things that are happening’. First, Putin, who has always been quite close to Luzhkov, has been surprisingly silent about the entire issue. Second, soon after the article was published, government-controlled television channels started airing materials that were highly critical of the mayor of Moscow. The criticism, in particular, was directed towards Luzhkov’s role in building his wife’s empire (by many seen as the results of corruption and illegal activities) and towards the way in which he handled the crisis that hit the whole of Russia this summer, when fires spread across the forests of the country and a wide cloud of smog covered Moscow. Apparently the mayor refused to return from his holiday and denied the existence of a ‘crisis’. Finally Luzhkov returned to Moscow but, according to ‘The Cap Affair’, a film broadcast by NTV TV channel, it was only because it was very concerned about his hives. Meanwhile people from inside and outside the Kremlin started talking about a possible dismissal of Luzhkov as mayor of Moscow (Medvedev has the power to do that since Putin’s introduced a reform according to which regional governors are not elected but appointed by the president). People gathered on the streets calling for Luzhkov’s resignation before the end of his mandate, to expire in June 2011.
Now, in Russia it is quite common to expect the government-controlled TV channels to broadcast programmes that support the government and its decisions. It is also true that according to Western observers the real power is still in Putin’s hands. We know that Putin supports Luzhkov and Medvedev doesn’t. Yet, the same government-controlled TV channels that should obsequiously support Putin seem to be backing Medvedev. The possibilities are two: either Putin has decided to stop supporting Luzhkov, whose shady behaviour and background are now very difficult to justify, or the split between Medvedev and Putin is something real, and it is expanding its effect, with people taking sides for one or the other in parliament as well as on TV channels. It is very difficult to say which one is closer to the truth, but this is a clear example of how much is unknown about Russian politics abroad.
People usually tend to imagine Russia as an authoritarian regime ruled by a single person, namely Putin, master of the house and able puppeteer, manoeuvring all the political system. Forbes’s writer Dmitry Sidorov, however, reminds us that the picture is much more complicated. In his article ‘The Russia Holding, Inc.’ Sidorov compares the system that rules Russia today to a holding company, of which the ‘Medvedev Limited’ and ‘Luzhkov Limited Liability Partners’ are parts involved in a business dispute. You can find the article here:
The question is: who has the power in Russia today? Sidorov seems to side with those that believe Putin is in full control. Others claim that Putin and Medvedev are just the face of a group of former K.G.B. and military officers, the Siloviki, that have being clinging to power since 2000. Others see Medvedev as the creature escaping from his master’s control. The problem is that they don’t have much evidence. Russian politics is a murky business, after all. But maybe tomorrow will give us a new piece to complete this puzzle. According to Russian newspaper Kommersant Luzhkov is expected to resign by the end of next week. Will he?
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