Dmitry Medvedev is referred to as the "newly elected and not yet serving president of the Russian Federation" in the order signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Dmitry Medvedev Obtains New Status
// The president of Russia signs an order on the president of Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed order No. 295 “On the Status of the Newly Elected and Not Yet Serving President of the Russian Federation” on March 3, Kommersant learned yesterday. Special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov explains why the order is unprecedented in modern Russian history.
At least now we know what Dmitry Medvedev will be called until May. He's the newly elected, not yet serving president.
Obviously, he has been newly elected because a few people were elected president of the Russian Federation before him and not because he had been president before and we didn't notice.
The presidential administration is ordered in this document “for the purposes of regulating the status of the newly elected and not yet serving president of the Russian Federation” to “ensure the activities of the newly elected and not yet serving president of the Russian Federation.”
That point means that the presidential administration will do what is has done until now, that is, work for the active and not yet active president.
The Federal Protection Service of the Russian Federation is ordered “to provide the newly elected and not yet serving president of the Russian Federation state protection for the period until the official announcement of his election as the president of the Russian Federation.”
A high-placed Kommersant source in the Kremlin gave an exhaustive answer to my question about how the level of protection Medvedev will receive will differ from the protection Putin receives.
“As much as necessary,” he said.
Even that answer has an element of content. The newly elected president will be protected not with the same signs of attention as the president in office, but the signs of attention will be greater than before.
In addition, the Federal Protection Service of the Russian Federation “in agreement with the administration of the president of the Russian Federation,” was ordered to “ensure the provision of an official residence to the newly elected and not yet serving president of the Russian Federation.”
What was most interesting about that document was that it appeared at all. No mechanism for the transfer of power from one person to another has been developed in the modern history of Russia. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin stayed in power. In 200, acting president Vladimir Putin became president. In 2004, Putin won a second term.
Of course, at the end of 1999 Yeltsin announced his resignation as president of Russia. But Putin did not have a two-month interval when his indeterminate status required specification by special order.
Things became clear for him all too quickly. The clarity that is dawning on Medvedev now probably won't be a disappointment to him.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 06, 2008
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