Russian President Vladimri Putin (on screen) at an away session of presidium of the State Council in Krasnoyarsk
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Putin on Putin: Couldn't Be Better
Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Krasnoyarsk yesterday to take part in the unveiling of a model of a new bridge over the Yenisei River and tell a group of United Russia-supporting builders why he decided to take the lead of the party. They understood him to say that, if he receives a real vote of confidence within United Russia, it will permit him to control decisions made in the country. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov understood him the same way.
Putin chatted with the builders over tea in their utility building. Before he arrived, the workers from the Ilan and Sibmost companies shared their observations as they checked their schedules.
“What does that bridge even look like?” one asked as he examined a plan on the wall.
“That's it.”
“That's the model.”
“It isn't even a model! It's an ad from Krasnoyarsk television. Actually, an institute in St. Petersburg just won the tender a month ago.”
Several minutes later, in the same spot, regional leaders were telling the president that “the construction of the bridge across the Yenisei is moving forward at a brisk pace, as is financing. It will even be possible to complete the bridge in 2008 instead of 2009…”
“There, you see, brisk financing,” said the president.
A little later, one f the workers said that they were meeting their schedules, but there was no financing.
“We completed one object in September, but no one wants to pay for it,” he said in an offended tone.
“I said briskly' and you say underfinanced,'” the president said.
The worker had actually said unfinanced, but he nodded his head in the affirmative.
“I know,” the president continued. “It is a budget regulation problem. When they a lot money at the end of the year. We know about that.”
The worker nodded again, with less conviction this time and sat down.
Then they did what they were supposed to. Viktor Galyshev, chief of Sibmost crew No. 7 told the president that he would vote for the United Russia Party and President Putin.
“We are all voting for you,” he said with concern in his voice. “The question is whether the Constitution allows you to be president for a third term. But who else would you be?”
In response, Putin gave Galyshev an exhaustive explanation of why he will vote for United Russia and him. “There is an old problem in the country,” he said, “that is called the alienation of people from authority, distrust by citizens of bodies of authority. It was like that in imperial times, and it was like that in Soviet times. I say Soviet times' now. We are used to hearing Soviet times.'” Why? We thought that the soviets were key link in the chain of power. That was not so. They were an auxiliary branch of government. They were essentially a party authority. The main decisions were made by city committees, district committees and the Central Committee. Who saw those people? Nobody ever. Only on television.”
“And in newspapers!” someone added enthusiastically.
“And in newspapers,” the president agreed. “Today the situation has undergone a cardinal change. The very fact that you and I are sitting and talking about this here is the best proof of it.”
Putin used himself as an example, but I think General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev would have been a better example. He like to talk to the people too. Nikita Khrushchev did too. Putin moved beyond Soviet times to the 1990s.
“And all the same, many of the negative things about the democratic system, unfortunately, were brought onto our soil. It is enough to remember the beginning of the 1990s. They promised one thing and did another,” he said. “They promised that there would be prosperity in two or three months, and there was more impoverishment. There was voucherization. Oligarch emerged who made billions from the savings of millions. It came to the point of civil war. They drove the country to the brink of collapse. Of course, we remember that.”
It was the first time that Putin had spoken so openly and sincerely about those times. Something had always held him back before.
“That is, distrust of the authorities happens,” he continued. “Now what is United Russia? Is it an ideal political structure? Of course not!... Of course not!... There are no firm ideological principles there yet that party members are ready to put their authority behind. Unfortunately, there are no unified ideological configurations in the party, but it is still close to the authorities, on the regional level – to governors – and on the federal level – close to the government and the president. As a rule, all sorts of carpetbaggers try to leech on to those structures. Their goal is not the good of the people, but their own enrichment. They compromise a party. Then why was it necessary for me to take the top place on the federal party list?”
“Yes. Why?” the crew chief asked with real interest.
“Because we still have nothing better,” the president answered. So he had to head something. Obviously, he had decided long ago to take the lead of some party. But none of them suited him. The longer he looked, the less he liked them. One was full of carpetbaggers, another wasn't even worth the carpetbaggers' attention. And, after long and hard thought, Vladimir Putin chose United Russia.
It was a powerful confession.
“If anything has worked out recently, and some things have, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here with you and you would not be telling me about how fast you are completing such huge projects, then, to a significant degree, it has worked out only because I have relied on United Russia in the parliament in my practical undertakings,” the president said.
Putin explained that the parliament as a consolidated force supported all of his decisions.
“They passed the three-year budget,” he said. “That happened in a hard battle with the government. And now those who say We know better' can get in there and everything will crumble.”
So there is no reason even to think about whether or not there could be anything better than what Putin and United Russia have dreamed up.
“That is what disturbs me most of all,” the president confessed. “Because, in spite of all it will cost, and I see that too, I decided to become the head of United Russia and convince people to vote for the party and form a majority in the State Duma. And of we achieve that unity between the executive and legislative branches of government, then you and I will have a chance to implement the plans that are written into the laws that have been passed.”
Putin uses the words “unity,” “united” and “unification” more and more often in his speeches, as if to link them with his own image in the subconscious of the electorate. Words like “just,” “liberal” and “right” are not heard on his lips. Even when he was speaking about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union yesterday, he did not use the adjective “communist” even once. That was probably so that no one could accuse him of illegal campaigning.
“From tine immemorial, they have said that victory is not with the one with the power, but with the one with the truth. If people vote for United Russia, where I am at the top of the party list, which, in principle, makes up the overwhelming majority of citizens, that means, in turn, that I will have a moral right to ask everyone who works in the Duma and the government to carry out the decisions that are being made today.”
Finally he came out and said it. He tied the results of the elections with trust in him personally. Until now, only analysts had done that, which only detracted from the veracity of the idea.
“I am refraining so far from saying in what form I will do that,” the president continued. “There are various options and, if it happens, that is, the result that I am counting on, I will have that opportunity. Thank you for wanting to vote for United Russia.”
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 14, 2007
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