As soon as the questions came to changes in the Russian Constitution, the Russian prime minister started looking bored.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Putin Talks about Third Term
// The prime minister finally comments on the president’s address
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated yesterday after a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen that the next raise in customs duties on forest products would be postponed a year for Finland and, for the first time, publicly mentioned the possibility of calling off construction of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline. That was not the only thing he commented on for the first time publicly. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov found what he said when asked if he would run for president again much more interesting.
Journalists waited so long for the Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s press conference to begin that they to think the new American president would be taking part as well. The reason for the delay turned out to be somewhat more prosaic. Finns, like the Balts, don’t hurry.
At one point, a member of the Russian prime minister’s security team went up to two Finnish journalists and said, “Don’t speak so loudly. Do you know that everything can be heard there?” He pointed to the door through which the prime ministers were expected to pass.
“Really? They can hear us in there?” one of the journalists asked, amazed.
“Really,” the security man answered snidely.
Then the journalist cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Hurry up, please!”
Half an hour later, Putin and Vanhanen came out.
Putin said that Finland had surpassed Germany as Russia’s top trading partner.
Vanhanen looked like the winner of a long, hard fight just then who had received the yellow T-shirt of victory, but it was invisible.
Putin said Russia would spend ˆ700 million to modernize the rail line between St. Petersburg and Helsinki and, in two years, it would be possible to travel from point A to point B on it in two and a half hours. Then he came to the main part. “Russia is interested not only in sending its lumber abroad, it is interested in processing it too” and “these actions are not intended to be detrimental to anyone [such as Finland], but to develop our economy.”
After that bad news for Finland, there was some good news. “Considering the conditions of the world economic crisis, there may be social consequences, such as job cuts, if we make decisions of that type, the Russian government thinks it possible to delay the next raise in the customs duty on forest products from Russia 9-12 months,” Putin added.
The Finnish prime minister spoke about that decision with as much inspiration as if he and Putin were now forest brothers forever. That was understandable. Until then, the Russians had been as inflexible as one of their logs on that question.
The first question addressed to Putin made everyone there, except Putin, brighten up. He ostentatiously looked bored when a Finnish journalist asked whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s legal initiative to lengthen the presidential term in Russia to six years was so that Putin took take office again.
“President Medvedev’s proposals,” Putin said with a heavy sigh, almost a yawn, “in connection with the amendment have no personal dimension.”
No personal dimension for whom, I wanted to ask.
But Putin, for the first time as prime minister, answered the question, whether or not he would return to the post of president, and that should be recorded, since he will be asked about it tens and hundreds of times more in the following months and years. It should be remembered that an unrushed Finn was the first to ask.
“As is well known,” Putin continued, “they were made as part of a whole package of proposals to improve the structure of state management… As far as I know, the president of the Republic of Finland is elected for six years.”
The journalist’s expression darkened as she realized she had played right into Putin’s hands with such an incontrovertible argument.
“For many years,” Putin continued, “the president of France was elected for seven years.”
He supports Medvedev’s proposal, Putin concluded. (As if there could be any doubt…)
“As for who we will elect for that term and when, it is too early to say,” Putin stated.
The world of Russian political expectations filled with a sea of sweet illusions and assumptions at that moment. They will give fodder to political scientists and journalists for a long time to come, the same way the topic of Putin’s successor did.
His words left unspoken and carried so much of the intrigue that makes the life of the political scientist so full in the eyes of others. He neither confirmed, nor denied… But it was enough to draw conclusions and more conclusions from.
But Putin let slip one incautious word: “when.” He shouldn’t have said that. That much is known: about half a year before the current presidential term ends.
That word might give the impression that Putin thought the term could end earlier than specified in the Constitution, since that document can be changed from day to day.
It was probably to prevent speculation of that type that the prime minister added, when such words would seem unnecessary, “Everyone sees that the political system is functioning effectively and it is too early to speak about future elections.”
He probably also said that because he too finds it unthinkable that the presidential term in Russia should end earlier than in 2012.
Then they asked Putin if the Nord Stream pipeline was discussed and if there were negotiation on routing it through Finnish waters. Putin explained again that the company has spent more than $100 million on ecological research.
“And all Finnish structures will receive exhaustive information on that subject in the nearest future,” Putin said, sounding annoyed.
It was clearly a painful topic for him. His favorite project, the benefit of which was so obvious in both Russia and the West that there was nothing to find fault with, is being faulted and faulted and is again being held up to examination.
“Yes, we had a substantive conversation on that topic,” the Finnish prime minister said. “Finland needs the natural gas that will be delivered through that pipeline.”
Here the yearlong furlough from the customs duty on forest products came uninvited back to mind. But it cannot be ruled out that it really was a gesture of goodwill and concern for employment of Finnish citizens during a world economic crisis, even though the government wasn’t thinking that much about Russian citizens yet.
The question could have been considered exhaustively answered already, but Putin was unable to stop. “What didn’t we talk about in connection with the ecology of the project!” he exclaimed. “Cadmium! Shipping! Birds! Cables on the seabed, ammunition from the Second World War… Europe has to decide whether it needs this pipeline or not! If not, we’ll reject it and build liquefaction plants and send [the natural gas] to other markets!”
I think he wanted to stop again and again couldn’t. First he said he was ready to close the project down. Then he said that it was an attempt by the West to apply pressure. It seems he really is prepared to end the project because he is so annoyed that they refuse to understand him for so long and see Nord Stream and South Stream only as manacles Russia si clamping on gas-starved Europe.
“I want one thing to be understood,” Putin added. “We won’t press for Nord Stream. We’ll build a liquefaction plant. We’ll sell it. To you too. Only it’ll be more expensive for you. That’s the thing! So do your math. It’s easy on a computer.”
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 13, 2008
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