Women of Vladivostok consider Lyudmila Putina (right) to be a perfect wife for Vladimir Putin and the best guarantor for succession of power in Russia.
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Putin Picked as New President’s Husband
// Women of Vladivostok know how to ensure succession of power in Russia
Grassroots in the Russian Far East found a way for Vladimir Putin to retain power, which came one day after the national Council of Initiative Groups to Support Putin urged the Russian president to stay. The Women of Vladivostok NGO has suggested nominating the head of the state’s wife Lyudmila Putina for president. However, neither the party in power nor analysts consider the option valid.
Entrepreneur Larisa Omelyanchuk, leader of Women of Vladivostok, issued a statement in local media on Friday to suggest nominating Lyudmila Putina for president. The NGO which nominated 13 candidates for Vladivostok’s legislature in the recent election is reported to draw support from the city administration. The statement says that the Constitution bars Vladimir Putin from running for a third term in the presidential election in March, but most Russians would prefer the continuation of the incumbent president’s policies. The organization believes the Mr. Putin’s wife will become the best guarantor for succession of power and stability in the society.
“Lyudmila Alexandrovna is a perfect wife and active public figure. She promoted the creation of the Center for Russian Language Development. She represents our country well on her husband’s foreign visits. She is essentially a mature politician,” Ms. Emelyanchuk explained.
She says Women of Vladivostok are ready to act as an initiative group to nominate Mrs. Putin for president. Ms. Emelyanchuk insisted that the idea was not imposed on her: “It was completely our own initiative.”
Politicians in the Far East say that Women of Vladivostok’s move to nominate Lyudmila Putina for president was purely a PR stunt. “The majority of voters in Vladivostok know nothing about candidates from Women of Vladivostok. Here is not a very smart PR move about it,” says the leader of the Communist Party’s faction in the local legislature, Vladimir Bespalov. “Lyudmila Putin is very low-profile. She is unable to occupy the post of a minister, let alone the presidency.” Leader of local Fair Russia, Vladimir Voitovsky, agrees: “This is some sort of ladies’ fuss about the election. It’s all just for fun.” Vladimir Nikiforov, leader of Yabloko in the Far East, believes that Russia “does not need a monarchy”. United Russia supported the opposition: “I don’t really want to comment it – it’s a simple PR stunt,” says Igor Chemeris, deputy head of the party in power’s local branch.
It is not for the first time that grassroots are trying to put Lyudmila Putina forward for the post. In April, activists set up “For Putina! For Female President! and went to the streets of Volgograd to gather several thousand signatures to support Mrs. Putin’s candidacy and later sent them on to the president’s wife. They got to reply, though. “Putina kept silent for some reason, but we will carry out with our proposal,” said the action’s organizer and local lawmaker Anatoly Beyev. “Argentina got a female president. Why can’t we?”
This time around, an initiative to nominate Vladimir Putin’s wife came one day after the session of All Russia Council of Initiative Groups to Support Putin. The session in Tver brought together people from 80 regions which saw rallies with the motto “For Putin” throughout October. The demonstrators spoke for the continuation of the president’s policies and urged him to stay in power beyond 2008 by any means. The council’s co-chairman, prominent lawyer Pavel Astakhov, however, would not comment on Vladivostok ladies’ initiative to keep Putin in power by electing his wife. “I can’t say for the whole movement. There are other co-chairmen,” he told Kommersant saying that he had not heard about the initiative. He also declined to give his personal view on the matter.
Analysts see no prospects for the Vladivostok initiative. “It is more likely to be a local fancy,” Sergey Markov, director of the Institute for Political Research and Moscow candidate for the parliament from United Russia, told Kommersant. “Lyudmila Putina has not shown any particular public activity, and I don’t think that the president needs it. According to opinion polls, almost 50 percent of voters say they are ready to vote for the person recommended by the president. But this candidate should have no significant shortcomings while a woman leader is some sort of shortcoming already.” Mr. Markov says that public in Russia is “skeptical about a woman’s ability to manage the country, and nepotism is disapproved of.”
Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute, agrees with the Kremlin-friendly analyst: “Vladimir Putin’s relationship with his wife is complicated. So, Lyudmila Putina would be the last person he would like to see as the successor. Once the president gets wind of the initiative, its authors will be punished, I think.”
&Wives of world leaders take over from husbands
On July 21, 1960, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, widow of Solomon Bandaranaike who was assassinated in 1959, became Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka since 1972). She held the top spot in the country until 1965, and was at the helm of the government between 1970 and 1977. Her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga later became the country’s prime minister and then president. She appointed her mother prime minister. Sirimavo Bandaranaike headed the government till August 2000.
On July 1, 1974, María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón, Argentine President Juan Perón’s third wife, became the country’s president. She was the country’s deputy prime minister from March 1976 after a military coup. She was arrested in Spain in January 2007 charged with connection to murders carried out during her time in office.
On December 19, 1997, Janet Rosalie Jagan, wife of Cheddi Jagan who ruled Guyana from 1992, was elected the country’s new president. After her husband’s death in March 1997 and before the election Mrs. Jagan served as Guyana’s prime minister. She earlier served as an MP, health and labor minister and interior minister in this country. Janet Jagan stepped down in August 1999 following a heart attack.
On October 28, 2007, Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, wife of the Argentine leader Néstor Kirchner, was elected the country’s new president. She is to assume powers on December 10, 2007. Prior to the election, Mrs. de Kirchner served as Senator from Buenos Aires Province and was elected for the country’s parliament four times.
In late 2006, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of the 1993-2000 U.S. President Bill Clinton, launched a campaign to bid for a Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election. Mrs. Clinton currently holds the lead among her Democratic rivals.
Kommersant Politics
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 17, 2007
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