Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning back the clock on his predecessor’s reforms — literally.
This week, Putin signaled his intent to reverse one of the few high-profile reforms Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev enacted while president: Keeping Russia stuck in summer time all year after clocks sprang forward in March. It’s perhaps an apt symbol of Putin’s relentless drive to roll back even the modest liberal legacy left behind by his protege, who made timid attempts at modernization as president, but never emerged from the shadow of his patron — and meekly agreed to step down to let him reclaim the top job.
One by one, each of Medvedev’s reforms — from decriminalizing slander to purging the boards of state-run companies of government officials — has been swept aside. Observers see it as part of a new tough course taken by Putin in response to massive winter protests against his rule, an indication that he sees no need for a compromise with the opposition.
Suspicions are also rife that Putin may even be gearing up to dump Medvedev, his longtime political partner, as prime minister.
Nobody believed that Medvedev would really be in charge when he took over as president in 2008, while Putin moved into the prime minister’s seat to observe a constitutional limit of two consecutive terms.
However, he led many to believe that he may at least soften Putin’s autocratic ways, especially when he proclaimed in a speech that “freedom is better than non-freedom.” He heartened many by promising to allow greater political competition, champion media freedoms, liberalize the economy and fight graft.
In the end, he fulfilled few of these pledges, leaving the tightly controlled political system largely intact, while Putin made it abundantly clear that he remained Russia’s paramount leader. A year ago, Medvedev showed unswerving loyalty to Putin when he refused to seek a second presidential term and agreed to swap jobs.
Medvedev now sees himself sinking further into irrelevance.
The latest blow came with Putin’s comments on his protege’s time switch initiative, which had angered many Russians because it meant they would have to trudge to work in pitch darkness during the nation’s long winter. Medvedev had argued that keeping clocks on summer time helped farmers.
Putin said on Tuesday that Medvedev “isn’t fixed on his decision” — a comment that appears to signal that the measure is doomed.
A humiliating revision of his own move would further erode Medvedev’s popularity, making it easier for Putin to sack him in the future if he decides to do so. A recent poll by the VTsIOM opinion research center showed Medvedev’s approval rating dropping to just over 20 percent this month, half of the level during his presidency. The same poll showed Putin’s approval rating staying stable at around 50 percent.
In one sign of fraying ties in the leadership duo, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week when asked about claims that some members of Putin’s inner circle held Medvedev responsible for the explosion of anti-Kremlin protests over the winter that “it’s not a secret that during Medvedev’s presidency some mistakes were made.”
Last winter’s protests, which drew more than 100,000 people demanding an end to Putin’s role into the frigid streets of Moscow, were the biggest Russia saw since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
After his inauguration in May, Putin quickly struck back at his political foes with a series of repressive bills that slapped hefty fines on participants in unsanctioned rallies and required foreign-funded non-governmental organizations, such as rights watchdogs and election monitoring groups, to register as “foreign agents” in a bid to undermine their credibility with Russians.
The parliament controlled by Putin’s loyalists quickly reversed Medvedev’s law decriminalizing slander, giving law enforcement authorities a new weapon against dissent.
The presidential human rights council, which Medvedev filled with Kremlin critics, was also quickly reshuffled to purge them.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not