Putin Explains His Decision to Seek Presidency Again

[maddezmom]

By ELLEN BARRY

Published: January 16, 2012
MOSCOW — Vladimir V. Putin on Monday published his most personal explanation to date of his decision to return to the Russian presidency, rejecting the possibility of swift political change and casting himself in a historical context as the figure who must lead Russia out of a long, painful “zone of turbulence” that is just beginning.

Mr. Putin’s manifesto, which was published in the daily newspaper Izvestia, extends an invitation to citizens to engage in a broad-based dialogue with the country’s rulers, and devotes considerable attention to the political implications of Russia’s growing middle class. But he also sends a message that he is not willing to negotiate with opposition figures who, he says, lack a clear agenda for the country.

“A recurring problem in Russian history is the desire of a part of its elites to make leaps, to embrace revolution instead of sequential development,” the document said. “Not only Russian experience, but all world experience shows the fatal result of historic leaps: haste and subversion , without creation.”

Mr. Putin went on to argue that a new set of leaders would be equally vulnerable to corruption, “parasitism,” and stagnation, failings he says are chronic in Russian officialdom. “At every opportunity,” he wrote, “the ‘subverters’ before our eyes become ‘self-satisfied gentlemen,’ who oppose any changes and jealously guard their status and privileges. Or the reverse — the ‘gentlemen’ turn into ‘subverters.’”

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/world/europe/vladimir-putin-explains-his-decision-to-seek-presidency-again.html?hp

[peacebird]

1. He never really left it, he just had his puppet installed for a time...

[DavidDvorkin]

2. "POWER! Er, I mean, blah blah blah blah blah."

[Igel]

3. Original here.

http://www.izvestia.ru/news/511884

He concludes with, "В ближайшие недели намерен представить на общественное обсуждение более конкретные соображения на этот счет." ("In the next few weeks I intend to publicly propose more concrete ideas concerning this for public debate.&quot