A man disguised as Ex-USA Secretary of State
(=foreign minister) Condoleezza Rice the half-brother of
Vladimir Putin and half-brother to George W. Bush see photos below
Condoleezza Rice a very
mentally sick man disguised as a woman, with the lipstick he is trying to
make his lips thicker and cover up the relation to his brother’s ex-USA
president George W. Bush, ex-USA vice
president Dick Cheneyand ex-Russian
president Vladimir Putin,and many others. Look good at his face and in particular at his eyes
and lips in comparison with the photo below the real woman Condoleezza
Rice. It is very visible that this is a woman with a man
charisma = man disguised as a woman. This man looks exactly like Alia Köse
alias Anita Naggar, also a man disguised as a woman just
with a slightly darker skin=brown body crème. That would explain my
fake brother Mohamad Nashaat Naggar was also a
bodyguard for his fake wife.
Because of constitutionally
mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive
presidential term. After the victory of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in the 2008
presidential elections, Putin was nominated by Medvedev to
be Russia's Prime
Minister; Putin took office on 8 May 2008. In September
2011, Putin officially announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive
term in the 2012
presidential election. His intention to circumvent the
constitution and prolong his rule, proved extremely unpopular in Russia, and
was believed to be a cause of the 2011 Russian election protests.
Putin is credited with bringing political
stability.[1]
He has been credited[who?]
with restoring the territorial integrity[clarification
needed] of Russia via the Second Chechen War.[citation
needed] During Putin's presidency, the
Russian economy grew for nine straight years, seeing GDP increase by 72% in PPP
(sixfold in nominal),[2][3]
poverty decrease by more than 50%,[4][5][6]
and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640.[2][7][8]
These achievements were ascribed[who?]
to strong macroeconomic management, important fiscal policy reforms and a confluence
of high oil prices, surging capital inflows and access to low-cost external
financing,[9]
Some authors described them as impressive.[10][11]
Others have noted that growth has been contained to the energy sector,
leaving other sectors feeble, and anemic. During his rule, Russias has
experienced population decline due to a high death rate, linked to widespread
alcoholism. Emigration has become more popular as the economy has
deteriorated in non-energy sectors, leading to an outflow of 1.25 million
Russians from 2001-2011[12],
a similar outflow as after 1917.[13]
In 2011, about 100 000 to 150 000 are leaving Russia annually.[14]
During his presidency, Putin passed into law a
flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits
tax, and new land and legal codes.[10][15]
His energy
policy affirms Russia's position as an energy superpower.[16][17]Energy projects have included the
renaissance of the nuclear
industry in the country and construction starts on several
major export pipelines,
including ESPO and Nord Stream. He has tightened controls
over religious institutions and restricted the media.[18]
He ended the election of local governors and made them appointed by Moscow
instead.
While the Putin presidency has been criticized
by Western observers and domestic opposition as undemocratic,[19]
Putin's overseeing of the return of order and stability has won him
popularity in Russian society.[citation
needed] Putin often supports a tough guy image in
the media, demonstrating his physical capabilities and taking part in unusual
or dangerous acts, such as extreme sports and interaction with wild animals.[20]
A judoka and samboist,
several times Champion of Leningrad in his youth, Putin has played a major role in
development of sport in Russia,
notably, helping the city of Sochi to win the
bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Vladimir Putin's father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin
Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation),[21]
to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna
Putina (1911–1998). His mother was a factory worker, and his father was
a conscript in the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s.[22]
Two elder brothers were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months
of birth, while the second succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad.
His paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was
employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a cook, and after Lenin's
death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya.
He would later cook for Joseph Stalin
when the Soviet leader visited one of his dachas in the Moscow region. Spiridon later was
employed at a dacha belonging to the Moscow City Committee of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, at which the young Putin would
visit him.[23]
His autobiography, Ot Pervogo Litsa
(English: In the First Person),[22]
which is based on Putin's interviews, speaks of humble beginnings, including
early years in a communal apartment in Leningrad. On 1 September 1960, he
started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, just across from his house. By
fifth grade he was one of a few in a class of more than 45 pupils who was not
yet a member of the Pioneers, largely because of his rowdy
behavior. In sixth grade he started taking sport seriously in the form of sambo and
then judo. In his youth, Putin was eager to
emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet
screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov
and Georgiy Zhzhonov.[24]
Putin with his mother, Maria Ivanovna, in July 1958
Putin graduated from the International Law
branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad
State University in 1975, writing his final thesis on international law.[25]
While at university he became a member of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until the
party was dissolved in December 1991.[26]
Also at the University he met Anatoly Sobchak who later played an
important role in Putin's career. Anatoly Sobchak was at the time an Assistant Professor and lectured Putin's
class on Business Law (khozyaystvennoye pravo).[27]
KGB career
Putin joined the KGB
in 1975 upon graduation from university, and underwent a year's training at
the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad.
He then went on to work briefly in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence) before he was
transferred to the First Chief
Directorate, where among his duties was the monitoring of
foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad, while using the cover of
being a police officer with the CID.[vague][28][29]
From 1985 to 1990, the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany.[30]
Following the collapse of the East German regime, Putin was recalled to the
Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1991 he assumed a
position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State
University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov.[31][32]
In his new position, Putin maintained surveillance on the student body and
kept an eye out for recruits. It was during his stint at the university that
Putin grew reacquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of
Leningrad. Sobchak served as an assistant professor during Putin's university
years and was one of Putin's lecturers. Putin resigned from the active state
security services at the beginning of 1992, after the defeat of the KGB-supported abortive putsch
against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.[27]
Putin in KGB uniform
Early political
career
In May 1990, Putin was appointed Mayor Sobchak's
advisor on international affairs. On 28 June 1991, he was appointed head of
the Committee for External Relations of
the Saint
Petersburg Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting
international relations and foreign investments. The Committee also
registered business ventures in Saint Petersburg. Less than one year later,
Putin was investigated by a commission of the city legislative council.
Commission deputies Marina Salye and Yury Gladkov concluded that Putin
understated prices and permitted the export of metals valued at $93 million,
in exchange for foreign food aid that never arrived.[33][34][35][36][37]
Despite the commission's recommendation that Putin be fired, Putin remained
head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996.[27][38][39][40][41][42]
From 1994 to 1997, Putin was appointed to other
positions in Saint Petersburg. In March 1994, he became first deputy head of
the city administration. From 1995 through June 1997, he led the Saint
Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home Is Russia political party.[43]
From 1995 through June 1997 he was also the head of the Advisory Board of the
JSC Newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie
Vedomosti.[43]
In 1996, Anatoly Sobchak lost the Saint
Petersburg mayoral election to Vladimir
Yakovlev. Putin was called to Moscow and in June 1996
became a Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department
headed by Pavel Borodin. He
occupied this position until March 1997. During his tenure Putin was
responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized transfer of
the former assets of the Soviet Union and Communist Party to
the Russian Federation.[27]
On 26 March 1997 President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy
chief of Presidential Staff, which he
remained until May 1998, and chief of the Main Control Directorate of the
Presidential Property Management Department (until June 1998). His
predecessor on this position was Alexei Kudrin and the successor was Nikolai Patrushev
both future prominent politicians and Putin's associates.[27]
On 25 May 1998, Putin was appointed First Deputy
Chief of Presidential Staff for
regions, replacing Viktoriya Mitina;
and, on 15 July, the Head of the Commission for the preparation of agreements
on the delimitation of power of regions and the federal
center attached to the President, replacing Sergey Shakhray. After Putin's
appointment, the commission completed no such agreements, although during
Shakhray's term as the Head of the Commission there were 46 agreements signed.[45]
Later, after becoming President Putin canceled all those agreements.[27]
On 25 July 1998 Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin
head of the FSB (one of the successor
agencies to the KGB), the position Putin occupied until August 1999. He
became a permanent member of the Security Council of the
Russian Federation on 1 October 1998 and its Secretary on 29 March 1999.
In April 1999, FSB Chief Vladimir Putin and Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin held a televised
press conference in which they discussed a video that had aired nationwide 17
March on the state-controlled Russia TV channel which showed a naked man very
similar to the Prosecutor
General of Russia, Yury Skuratov, in bed with two young
women. Putin claimed that expert FSB analysis proved the man on the tape to
be Skuratov and that the orgy had been paid for by persons investigated for
criminal offences.[31][46]
Skuratov had been adversarial toward President Yeltsin and had been
aggressively investigating government corruption.[47]
On 15 June 2000, The Times reported that Spanish
police discovered that Putin had secretly visited a villa in Spain belonging
to the oligarch Boris
Berezovsky on up to five different occasions in 1999.[48]
On 9 August 1999, Vladimir Putin was appointed
one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, which enabled him later on that
day, as the previous government led by Sergei Stepashin had been sacked, to
be appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian
Federation by President Boris Yeltsin.[49]
Yeltsin also announced that he wanted to see Putin as his successor. Later,
that same day, Putin agreed to run for the presidency.[50]
On 16 August, the State Duma
approved his appointment as Prime Minister with 233 votes in favour (vs. 84
against, 17 abstained),[51]
while a simple majority of 226 was required, making him Russia's fifth PM in
fewer than eighteen months. On his appointment, few expected Putin, virtually
unknown to the general public, to last any longer than his predecessors. He
was initially regarded as a Yeltsin loyalist; like other prime ministers of
Boris Yeltsin, Putin did not choose ministers himself, his cabinet being
determined by the presidential administration.[52]
Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors, Moscow Mayor Yuriy
Luzhkov and former Chairman of the Russian Government Yevgeniy Primakov, were already campaigning to
replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's
emergence as a potential successor. Putin's law-and-order
image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in Chechnya
soon combined to raise his popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.
Putin's rise to public office in August 1999
coincided with an aggressive resurgence of the near-dormant conflict in the
North Caucasus, when a number of Chechens invaded a neighboring region
starting the War in Dagestan. Both in Russia and abroad,
Putin's public image was forged by his tough handling of the war. On assuming
the role of acting President on 31 December 1999, Putin went on a previously
scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya. In 2003, a controversial
referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares
the Republic as a part of Russia. Chechnya has been gradually stabilized with
the parliamentary elections and the establishment of a regional government.[53][54]
Throughout the war Russia has severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement,
although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.[55]
While not formally associated with any party,
Putin pledged his support to the newly formed Unity Party,[56]
which won the second largest percentage of the popular vote (23.3%) in the
December 1999 Duma elections, and in turn he was
supported by it.
The first decree that Putin signed, on 31
December 1999, was titled "On guarantees for former president of the
Russian Federation and members of his family".[57][58]
This ensured that "corruption charges against the outgoing President and
his relatives" would not be pursued, although this claim is not strictly
verifiable.[clarification
needed][59]
Later on 12 February 2001 Putin signed a federal law on guarantees for former
presidents and their families, which replaced the similar decree. In 1999,
Yeltsin and his family were under scrutiny for charges related to
money-laundering by the Russian and Swiss authorities.[60]
While his opponents had been preparing for an election
in June 2000, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the elections being held
within three months, in March.[citation
needed]Presidential
elections were held on 26 March 2000; Putin won in the
first round.[citation
needed]
Vladimir Putin taking the Presidential Oath on 7 May 2000 with Boris Yeltsin looking on.
Vladimir Putin was inaugurated president on 7
May 2000. He appointed Minister of FinanceMikhail Kasyanov as his Prime minister.
Having announced his intention to consolidate power in the country into a
strict vertical, in May 2000 he issued a decree dividing 89 federal subjects
of Russia between 7 federal
districts overseen by representatives of him in order to
facilitate federal administration. In July 2000, according to a law proposed
by him and approved by the Russian
parliament, Putin also gained the right to dismiss heads of
the federal subjects.[citation
needed]
Russia's legal reform continued productively
during Putin's first term. In particular, Putin succeeded in the codification
of land law and tax law, where progress had been slow during Yeltsin's administration,
because of Communist and oligarch opposition, respectively. Other legal
reforms included new codes on labour, administrative, criminal, commercial
and civil procedural law, as well as a major statute on the Bar.[15]
The first major challenge to Putin's popularity
came in August 2000, when he was criticised for his alleged mishandling of
the Kursk submarine disaster.[65]
In December 2000, Putin sanctioned the law to
change the National
Anthem of Russia. At the time the Anthem had music by Glinka and no words. The change was to
restore (with a minor modification) the music of the post-1944 Soviet anthem
by Alexandrov,
while the new text was composed by Mikhalkov.[66][67]
Many in the Russian press and in the
international media warned that the death of some 130 hostages in the special
forces' rescue operation during the 2002 Moscow
theater hostage crisis would severely damage President
Putin's popularity. However, shortly after the siege had ended, the Russian
president was enjoying record public approval ratings – 83% of Russians
declared themselves satisfied with Putin and his handling of the siege.[68]
The arrest in early
July 2003 of Platon Lebedev, a
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
partner and second largest shareholder in Yukos, on suspicion of illegally
acquiring a stake in a state-owned fertilizer firm, Apatit, in 1994, foreshadowed what by
the end of the year became a full-fledged prosecution of Yukos and its
management for fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion.[citation
needed]
A few months before the elections, Putin fired
Kasyanov's cabinet and appointed Mikhail Fradkov to his place. Sergey Ivanov became the first civilian
in Russia to take Defense Minister position.
By the beginning of Putin's second term he had
been accused of undermining independent sources of political power in Russia,
decreasing the degree of pluralism in the Russian society.[69]
Some in Beslan blamed Putin personally for the
massacre after the Beslan
school hostage crisis in September 2004, in which hundreds
died.[70]
Putin suggested the creation of the Public
Chamber of Russia and launched an initiative to replace the
direct election of the Governors and Presidents of the Federal
subjects of Russia with a system whereby they would be
nominated by the President and approved or disapproved by regional legislatures.[71][72]
He also initiated the merger of a number of federal subjects of Russia into
larger entities.[clarification
needed]
According to various Russian and western media
reports[who?],
major domestic issues for Putin included demographic
and social trends in Russia, such as a death rate higher
than the birth rate, cyclical poverty, and housing concerns. In 2005, National
Priority Projects were launched in the fields of health care, education,
housing and agriculture[clarification
needed]. The most high-profile change
within the national priority project frameworks was probably the 2006
across-the-board increase in wages in healthcare and education, as well as
the decision to modernise equipment in both sectors in 2006 and 2007.[73]
In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits
and prenatal care for women. Putin
advocated[when?]
reforming the federal judiciary, calling it "Sovietesque". In 2005,
responsibility for federal prisons was transferred from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice.
Putin at the opening of the Blue Stream gas pipeline, 17 November
2005. Attribution: Kremlin.ru
One controversial aspect of Putin's second term
was continued criminal prosecution of Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
President of YUKOS,
for fraud and tax evasion.
While much of the international press saw this as a retaliation for
Khodorkovsky's donations to both liberal and communist opponents of the
Kremlin, the government said that Khodorkovsky was corrupting a large segment
of the Duma to prevent tax code changes such as taxes on windfall profits and
closing offshore tax evasion vehicles.
Khodorkovsky's arrest was seen positively by the Russian public.[74][dead link][citation
needed] Many of the early Russian
privatizations, including that of Yukos, are widely believed to have been
fraudulent – Yukos, valued at some $30 billion in 2004, had been
privatized for $110 million – and like other oligarchic groups, the
Yukos-Menatep name has been frequently tarred with accusations of links to
criminal organizations.[citation
needed] Tim Osborne of GML, the majority
owner of Yukos, said in February 2008: "Despite claims by President Vladimir
Putin that the Kremlin had no interest in bankrupting Yukos, the company's
assets were auctioned at below-market value. In addition, new debts suddenly
emerged out of nowhere, preventing the company from surviving. The main
beneficiary of these tactics was Rosneft. The Yukos affair marked a turning
point in Russia's commitment to domestic property rights and the rule of law."[75]
The fate of Yukos was seen by western media as a sign of a broader shift
toward a system normally described as state capitalism.[76][77]
The Yukos saga raised questions about the actual destination of $13.1 billion[78]
remitted in October 2005 by the state-run Gazprom as payment for 75.7% stake in Sibneft to Millhouse-controlled offshore accounts,[79]
after a series of generous dividend payouts and another $3 billion received
from Yukos in a failed merger in 2003.[80]
In 1996, Roman Abramovich
and Boris
Berezovsky had acquired the controlling interest in Sibneft
for $100 million within the controversial loans-for-shares
program.[81]
Some prominent Yeltsin-era businessmen such as Sergey Pugachyov reportedly still
close relationship with Putin's Kremlin.[82]
A study by Bank of Finland’s Institute for
Economies in Transition (BOFIT) in 2008 found that state intervention had
made a positive impact on the corporate governance
of many companies in Russia: the formal indications of the quality of
corporate governance[clarification
needed] in Russia were higher in companies
with state control or with a stake held by the government.[83]
Putin in the cockpit of a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber before
the flight (2005)
Since February 2006, Putin's administration has
often been described as a "Sovereign democracy",
a term with both positive and pejorative connotations. First proposed by Vladislav Surkov in February 2006, the
term quickly gained currency within Russia and arguably unified various
political elites around it. According to its proponents, the government's
actions and policies ought above all to enjoy popular support within Russia
itself and not be determined from outside the country.[84][85]
The Carnegie Endowment's Masha Lipman has said that "Sovereign
democracy is a Kremlin coinage that conveys two messages: first, that
Russia's regime is democratic and, second, that this claim must be accepted,
period. Any attempt at verification will be regarded as unfriendly and as
meddling in Russia's domestic affairs."[86]
Putin was widely criticized in the West and also
by Russian liberals for what many observers considered a wide-scale crackdown
on media freedom in Russia. Since the early
1990s, a number of Russian reporters who have covered the situation in Chechnya, or contentious stories on
organized crime, state and administrative officials and large businesses have
been killed.[87][88]
On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya,
a journalist who exposed corruption in the Russian army
and its conduct in Chechnya, was
shot in the lobby of her apartment building. The death of Politkovskaya
triggered an outcry in Western media, with accusations that, at best, Putin
has failed to protect the country's new independent media.[89][90]
When asked about the Politkovskaya murder in his interview with the German TV
channel ARD, Putin
said that her murder brings much more harm to the Russian authorities than
her writing.[91]
In January 2008, Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in
Extreme Situations, claimed that a system of "judicial terrorism"
had started against journalists under Putin and that more than 300 criminal
cases had been opened against them over the prior six years.[92]
Meeting with President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, 22 February 2008.
Attribution: Kremlin.ru
At the same time, according to 2005 research by VCIOM, the share of
Russians approving censorship on TV grew in a year from 63% to
82%. Sociologists believed that Russians were not against freedom of the
press so much as scenes of violence and sex.[93]
In June 2007, Putin organised a conference for
history teachers to promote a high-school teachers manual called A Modern
History of Russia: 1945–2006: A Manual for History Teachers which
portrays Joseph Stalin as
a cruel but successful leader. Putin said at the conference that the new
manual will "help instill young people with a sense of pride in
Russia", and argued that Stalin's purges pale in comparison to the United
States' atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At a memorial for
Stalin's victims, Putin said that while Russians should "keep alive the
memory of tragedies of the past, we should focus on all that is best in the
country".[94]
In a 2007 interview with newspaper journalists
from G8 countries, Putin spoke out in favor of a longer presidential term in
Russia, saying "a term of five, six or seven years in office would be
entirely acceptable".[95]
On 12 September 2007, Putin dissolved the
government upon the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Fradkov commented
that it was to give the President a "free hand" in the run-up to
the parliamentary election. Viktor Zubkov was appointed the new
prime minister.[96]
In December 2007, United Russia won 64.24% of the
popular vote in their run for State Duma according to election preliminary
results.[97]
Their closest competitor, the Communist
Party of Russia, won approximately 12% of votes.[98]
United Russia's victory in December 2007 elections was seen by many as an
indication of strong popular support of the then Russian leadership and its
policies.[99][100]
George W. Bush
and Vladimir Putin take a sunset walk on a pier along the Black Sea, April 5,
2008
The end of 2007 saw what both Russian and
Western analysts viewed as an increasingly bitter infighting between various
factions of the siloviki that
make up a significant part of Putin's inner circle.[101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108]
In December 2007, Russian sociologist Igor
Eidman (VCIOM) called the regime that had solidified under Putin "the
power of bureaucratic oligarchy",
with "the traits of extreme right-wing dictatorship — the
dominance of state-monopoly
capital in the economy, silovoki structures in governance, clericalism and statism in ideology".[109]
Some analysts say the emerging Russian socio-economic system is profoundly
unstable and the Kremlin after Dmitry Medvedev's nomination as
fraught with a coup d'état,
as "Putin has built a political construction that resembles a pyramid
which rests on its tip, rather than on its base".[110][111]
The Moscow Times wrote in February 2008: "The main
lesson we should have learned from Putin's eight years in office is a
recognition that under the traditional Russian political system that he has
revitalized, not only do officials not mean what they say, but also that
obfuscation is essential to the way it all works... Putin's playing of the
Russian political game has been virtuosic."[112]
On the eve of his stepping down as president the FT editorialised: "Mr. Putin will
remain Russia’s real ruler for some time to come. And the ex-KGB men he
promoted will stay close to the seat of power."[113]
On 8 February 2008, Putin delivered a speech
before the expanded session of the State
Council headlined "On the Strategy of Russia's Development
until 2020",[114]
which was interpreted by the Russian media as his "political
bequest". The speech was largely devoted to castigating the state of
affairs in the 1990s and setting ambitious targets of economic growth by 2020.[115]
He also condemned the expansion of NATO and the US plan to include Poland and the Czech Republic in a missile
defence shield and promised that "Russia has, and
always will have, responses to these new challenges".[116]
In his last days in office Putin was reported to
have taken a series of steps to re-align the regional bureaucracy to make the
governors report to the prime minister rather than the president.[117][118]
The presidential site explained that "the changes... bear a refining
nature and do not affect the essential positions of the system. The key role
in estimating the effectiveness of activity of regional authority still
belongs to President of the Russian Federation."
Putin was barred from a third term by the
Constitution. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected his
successor. On 8 May 2008—only a day after handing the presidency to
Medvedev—Putin was appointed Prime
Minister of Russia. By all accounts, however, he still held
the real power.[119]
On 24–25 July 2008, Putin accused the Mechel company of selling resources to
Russia at higher prices than those charged to foreign countries and avoiding
taxes by using foreign subsidiaries to sell its products internationally. The
Prime Minister's attack on Mechel resulted in sharp decline of its stock
value and contributed to the 2008 Russian financial crisis.[120][121][122][123]
In December 2008, car owners and traders from Vladivostok and other regions
protested against highly unpopular new duties and regulations on the import
of foreign-made used cars (the tariff hike was introduced by Putin in
violation of the international commitments undertaken by Medvedev at the G20 Summit
in November 2008[125]),
one of the slogans being "Putin, resign!"[126]
This was seen as the first visible public anger at one of the government's
responses to the crisis.[127]
The following month, the protests continued, with the slogans having become
of a mostly political nature.[128]
In December 2009, during the annual televised
phone-in session, the prime minister continued his reflective approach to Russian
history and openly criticised Josef Stalin’s cult of personality, his
“crimes against his own people”, and all forms of totalitarianism.[129]
On 5 February 2009, Russia's liberal democraticpolitical
movement, citing the regime's "total helplessness and
flagrant incompetence"[130][131]
maintained that "the dismantling of Putinism" and restoration of
democracy in Russia were prerequisites for any successful anti-crisis
measures and demanded that Putin's government resign.[130][131][132][133]
The Russian government's anti-crisis measures have been praised by the World
Bank, which said in its Russia Economic Report from November 2008: "prudent
fiscal management and substantial financial reserves have protected Russia
from deeper consequences of this external shock. The government’s
policy response so far—swift, comprehensive, and coordinated—has
helped limit the impact."[134]
Putin and Medvedev at the United Russia Congress on 24 September 2011.
On 9 June 2009, after 16 years of slowly
progressing accession talks with the World Trade
Organization, which, according to the European Union, might be completed by
the end of the year, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia withdrew from the
negotiations and instead would make a new joint bid with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Senior Kremlin officials
had earlier signalled, that Russia was losing patience with Western promises
to let it join.[135][136]
At the United Russia Congress in Moscow on 24 September 2011, Medvedev
officially proposed that Putin stand for the Presidency in 2012; an offer
which Putin "accepted". Given United Russia's near-total dominance
of Russian politics, many observers believe that Putin is all but assured of a
third term. The move is expected to see Medvedev stand on the United Russia
ticket in the parliamentary elections in December, with a goal of becoming
Prime Minister at the end of his presidential term.[137]
After the parliamentary
elections on 4 December 2011, many Russians protested
against perceived electoral fraud; protesters criticized Putin and United Russia. December 10 saw the
biggest protests since the fall of Communism. Demonstrators demanded that
Putin and other politicians resign, and that the election results be annulled.[138]
On 24 December 2011 an even bigger rally for fair elections was held in
Moscow; Putin's former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, called for new
elections and for accountability for those responsible for the election
fraud. [139]
Policies
Domestic policy
Several government actions made under
Putin’s presidency have been criticized by some independent Russian
media outlets and many Western commentators as anti-democratic.[140][141][142]
In 2007, "Dissenters' Marches" were organized by the
opposition group The Other
Russia,[143]
led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov and national-Bolshevist
leader Eduard Limonov.
Following prior warnings, demonstrations in several Russian cities were met
by police action, which included interfering with the travel of the
protesters and the arrests of as many as 150 people who attempted to break
through police lines.[144][145]
The Dissenters' Marches have received little support among the Russian
general public, according to popular polls.[146]
The Dissenters' March in Samara held in May 2007 during the Russia-EU summit
attracted more journalists providing coverage of the event than actual
participants.[147]
When asked in what way the Dissenters' Marches bother him, Putin answered
that such marches "shall not prevent other citizens from living a normal
life".[148]
During the Dissenters' March in Saint Petersburg on 3 March 2007, the
protesters blocked automobile traffic on Nevsky Prospect, the central street
of the city, much to the disturbance of local drivers.[149][150]
The Governor of Saint Petersburg,
Valentina Matvienko, commented on the event
that "it is important to give everyone the opportunity to criticize the
authorities, but this should be done in a civilized fashion".[150]
When asked about Kasparov's arrest, Putin replied that during his arrest
Kasparov was speaking English rather than Russian, and suggested that he was
targeting a Western audience rather than his own people.[151][152]
Putin has said that some domestic critics are being funded and supported by
foreign enemies who would prefer to see a weak Russia.[153]
In his speech at the United Russia
meeting in Luzhniki: "Those who oppose us
don't want us to realize our plan.... They need a weak, sick state! They need
a disorganized and disoriented society, a divided society, so that they can
do their deeds behind its back and eat cake on our tab.".[154]
In its January 2008 World Report, Human Rights Watch
wrote in the section devoted to Russia: "As parliamentary and
presidential elections in late 2007 and early 2008 approached, the
administration headed by President Vladimir Putin cracked down on civil
society and freedom of assembly. Reconstruction in Chechnya did not mask
grave human rights abuses including torture, abductions, and unlawful
detentions. International criticism of Russia’s human rights record
remains muted, with the European Union failing to challenge Russia on its
human rights record in a consistent and sustained manner."[155]
The organization called President Putin a "repressive" and
"brutal" leader on par with the leaders of Zimbabwe and Pakistan.[156]
Under the Putin administration the economy made real gains of an
average 7% per year (2000: 10%, 2001: 5.1%, 2002: 4.7%, 2003: 7.3%, 2004:
7.2%, 2005: 6.4%, 2006: 8.2%, 2007: 8.5%),[157]
making it the 7th largest economy in the world in purchasing
power. Russia's nominalGross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 6
fold, climbing from 22nd to 10th largest in the world. In 2007, Russia's GDP
exceeded that of Russian SFSR in 1990, meaning it has overcome the
devastating consequences of the 1998
financial crisis and preceding recession in the 1990s.[5]
During Putin's eight years in office, industry
grew by 76%, investments increased by 125%,[5]
and agricultural production and construction increased as well. Real incomes
more than doubled and the average monthly salary increased sevenfold from $80
to $640.[2][6][158]
From 2000 to 2006 the volume of consumer credit increased 45 times[159][160]
and the middle class grew from 8 million to 55 million. The number of people
living below the poverty line decreased from 30% in 2000 to 14% in 2008.[5][161][162]
In 2001, Putin, who has advocated liberal
economic policies, introduced flat tax rate of
13%;[163][164]
the corporate rate of tax was also reduced from 35 percent to 24 percent;[163]
Small businesses also get better treatment. The old system with high tax
rates has been replaced by a new system where companies can choose either a 6
percent tax on gross revenue or a 15 percent tax on profits.[163]
Overall tax burden is lower in Russia than in most European countries.[165]
A central concept in Putin's economic thinking was
the creation of so-called National champions,
vertically integrated companies in strategic sectors that are expected not
only to seek profit, but also to "advance the interests of the
nation". Examples of such companies include Gazprom, Rosneft and United
Aircraft Corporation.[166]
Before the Putin era, in 1998, over 60% of
industrial turnover in Russia was based on barter and various monetary
surrogates. The use of such alternatives to money has now fallen out of
favour, which has boosted economic productivity significantly. Besides
raising wages and consumption, Putin's government has received broad praise
also for eliminating this problem.[167]
Some oil revenue went to stabilization fund established in
2004. The fund accumulated oil revenue, which allowed Russia to repay all of
the Soviet Union's debts by 2005. In early 2008, it was split into the
Reserve Fund (designed to protect Russia from possible global financial
shocks) and the National Welfare Fund, whose revenues will be used for a
pension reform.[5]
Inflation
remained a problem however, as the government failed to contain the growth of
prices. Between 1999–2007 inflation was kept at the forecast ceiling
only twice, and in 2007 the inflation exceeded that of 2006, continuing an
upward trend at the beginning of 2008.[5]
The Russian economy is still commodity-driven despite its growth. Payments
from the fuel and energy sector in the form of customs duties and taxes
accounted for nearly half of the federal budget's revenues. The large
majority of Russia's exports are made up by raw materials and fertilizers,[5]
although exports as a whole accounted for only 8.7% of the GDP in 2007,
compared to 20% in 2000.[168]
The total numbers of cars and trucks produced in Russia between
2000–2008. Automotive
industry in Russia boomed at that period, and continued
growth after the 2008-2009 crisis.
To boost the market share of locally produced
vehicles and support the Russia's
automotive industry, the government under Putin implemented
several protectionist measures and launched programs to attract foreign
producers into the country. In late 2005, the government enacted legislation
to create special
economic zones (SEZ) with the aim of encouraging
investments by foreign automotive companies. The benefits of operating in the
special economic zones include tax allowances, abolishment of asset and land
taxes and protection against changes in the tax regime. Some regions also
provide extensive support for large investors (over $100 million.) These
include Saint Petersburg/Leningrad Oblast, Kaluga Oblast and Kaliningrad Oblast.[169]
Under Putin as President and Premier, most of the world's largest automotive
companies opened plants in Russia, including Ford Motor Company,
Toyota, General Motors, Nissan, Hyundai
Motor, Suzuki, Magna International,
Scania and MAN SE.
In 2005, Putin initiated an industry
consolidation programme to bring the main aircraft producing companies under
a single umbrella organization, the United
Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The aim was optimize production
lines and minimise losses. The programme was divided in three parts:
reorganization and crisis management (2007–2010), evolution of existing
projects (2010–2015) and further progress within the newly created
structure (2015–2025).[170]
The UAC, one of the so-called national champions
and comparable to EADS in Europe, enjoyed considerable financial
support from the Russian government, and injected money to the companies it
had acquired to improve their financial standing. The deliveries of civilian
aircraft increased to 6 in 2005, and in 2009 the industry delivered 15
civilian aircraft, worth 12.5 billion roubles, mostly to domestic customers.[171]
Since then Russia has successfully tested the fifth generation jet fighter, Sukhoi PAK FA, and started the
commercial production of the regional airlinerSukhoi Superjet 100,
as well as started developing a number of other major projects.
A construction program of floating
nuclear power plants will provide power to Russian Arctic
coastal cities and gas rigs. A 21,500-ton barge with twin 35-megawatt
reactors, the Akademik Lomonosov,
will go into operation in 2012.[175][176]
The Prirazlomnoye field,
an offshore oilfield in the Pechora Sea that
will include up to 40 wells, is currently under construction and drilling is
expected to start in early 2012. It will have the world's first ice-resistant
oil platform and will also be the
first offshore Arctic platform.[177][178]
In August 2011 Rosneft, a Russian government-operated
oil company, signed a deal with ExxonMobil to receive oil assets in
exchange for the joint development of Russian Arctic resources by both
companies.[179]
The agreement includes a $3.2 billion hydrocarbon
exploration of the Kara and Black seas,[180]
as well as joint development of ice-resistant drilling platforms and other
Arctic technologies.[181]
"The scale of the investment is very large. It’s scary to utter
such huge figures" said Putin on signing the deal.[179]
Environmental policy
In 2004, President Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty designed to
reduce greenhouse gases.[182]
However Russia did not face mandatory cuts, because the Kyoto Protocol limits
emissions to a percentage increase or decrease from 1990 levels and Russia's
greenhouse-gas emissions fell well below the 1990 baseline due to a drop in
economic output after the breakup of the Soviet Union.[183]
Recently during the past election Putin and his
assumed successor have been talking about the need for Russia to crack down
on polluting companies and clean up Russia’s environment. He has been
quoted as saying “Working to protect nature must become the systematic,
daily obligation of state authorities at all levels.” President
Medvedev has also been quoted as saying "There is not much they fear
because the penalty for environmental damage is frequently 10 times, even 100
times less than the fees to meet environmental requirements."[184][dated info]
