Russia’s finance minister rebelled yesterday against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s plan to make Russian President Dmitry Medvedev his prime minister if he returns to the Kremlin by saying he would not serve in the next government.
Foreign investors were alarmed by Russian Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin’s snub after Putin announced he would run for president in March next year in an election that could extend his rule until 2024.
Kudrin, a Putin ally, has prime ministerial ambitions and said he had “disagreements” with Medvedev, who may now struggle to establish his credibility as prime minister after being forced by Putin to renounce his dream of a second term as president.
“I do not see myself in a new government,” Kudrin, 50, said in comments released in Washington, where he was meeting global policymakers. “The point is not that nobody has offered me the job; I think that the disagreements I have [with Medvedev] will not allow me to join this government.”
Kudrin won the respect of investors as a guardian of financial stability by saving windfall oil revenues for a rainy-day fund, which helped Russia through the 2008 global economic crisis.
“Kudrin personifies Russia’s macro and fiscal stability. His departure would be a major blow to the Russian investment case,” said Roland Nash, chief strategist at Russian investment manager Verno Capital. “But I don’t think you should count him out quite yet. He is as close to Putin as Medvedev. Perhaps this is a bid for the role of prime minister.”
Putin, 58, and Medvedev, 46, have ruled in a power “tandem” since Putin was forced to yield the presidency in 2008 after serving the maximum two consecutive terms.
Putin won a standing ovation by accepting a proposal by Medvedev to return as president at a choreographed congress of the ruling United Russia party on Saturday.
Medvedev agreed to lead United Russia’s list of candidates for a parliamentary election on Dec. 4 in a move intended to help the party retain a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
Putin looks certain to be elected president in March. Opinion polls show other potential presidential candidates, such as nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky or communist Gennady Zyuganov, have little support and liberal opposition leaders have only limited appeal nationwide.
However, although Medvedev’s personal ratings are high, the strength of his prime ministerial credentials is unclear after he failed to carry out many of his reform promises as president.
“Medvedev’s usefulness runs out on Dec. 5,” one economist said, referring to the day after the parliamentary election.
Medvedev has failed to emerge from Putin’s shadow since they started sharing power. By contrast, Putin has in more than a decade in power cultivated the image of a vigorous leader and his policies — crushing a Chechen separatist rebellion, taming super-rich businessmen and bringing wayward regions to heel — have buttressed his popularity among Russians.
However, critics say his return to the Kremlin, virtually unopposed, bring back memories of the economic and political sclerosis under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“It’s a sign of growing stagnation in the Russian political elite and it means that Mr Putin, if elected, can rule for another 12 years until 2024,” said Yevgeny Volk, deputy director of the Yeltsin Foundation think tank.
The US government said it expected to keep making progress in the “reset” toward better relations with Moscow, whoever was the next Russian president.
Putin’s decision is likely to cause some nervousness in the West, where he is considered less liberal than Medvedev and more outspoken in his criticism of Western policies.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2