Putin dissolves Russian government

[BR_Parkway]

Source: Yahoo news

12 minutes ago

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has dissolved the Russian government on the request of the prime minister, the Kremlin said Wednesday, a major political shakeup that comes less than three months before crucial parliamentary elections.
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In announcing the dissolution, Putin said "indeed the country is now approaching parliamentary elections, which will lead to presidential election. You may be right that we all must think about how to build the power structure so that it better corresponds to the pre-election period and prepares the country for the time after the parliamentary elections and after presidential elections."

Earlier, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said he made the decision to request the government's dissolution based on "the approaching major political events in the country and a desire to give the president full freedom in making decisions, including personnel."

The shakeup comes ahead of crucial parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 2, followed some three months later by presidential elections.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_re_eu/russia_government

[Syrinx]

1. beat me to it.

[ticapnews]

2. This will undoubtedly give Cheney ideas...

Vlad has a good soul, though.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. beat me to it.

at least they will have a fair election.

[Snazzy]

3. So til Dec--Putin = Dictator

Fix is in.

[Posteritatis]

11. Not that I disagree about Putin

But at least part of this is the jargon of that type of political system.

In parliamentary governments (Canada, Britain, increasingly nominally Russia), "dissolving the government (or parliament)" and "calling an election" are pretty much synonymous. The term, in general, is usually innocuous. If Harper dissolved the legislature tomorrow I'd be cheering, because it'd mean I'd finally have an opportunity to help stomp the little fucker out of office a month down the road.

Of course, this is Putin, so chances are it's more an opportunity for Russians to vote between whichever Beelzebubs he allowed to live long enough to run for high office or whatever.

In this case, I can't tell if that's what Putin did, or if he dissolved the cabinet (which is also occasionally synonymous with "the government") amidst already-scheduled election talk. That would be considerably weirder, but I'd need to have a better understanding of the Russian constitution and so on for the specifics there.

So yeah. I trust Putin about as far as I can throw the country he rules, and I'm actually surprised he's making noises about elections at all considering a year or so ago he was rejecting calls to stand down after his term in office, but at least in general that turn of phrase doesn't mean a coup in parliamentary systems. We'll see in this case, though.

[junkiebrewster]

28. this is correct...

Putin is following in the pattern established by Yeltsin, whereby you install a successor to the PM post early in order to give him the power of incumbancy.

Putin is a shifty guy, no doubt, but this is normal procedure in parliamentary governments, especially in Russia. Yeltsin did it four times and somehow we survived. It can probably be interpreted as a sign that Putin plans to step down after the next presidential elections.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Russia and the United States are moving away from parliamentary style

governments, and into governments which "give the president full freedom in making decisions, including personnel."

I smell a collusion. Sounds like Cheney, Bush and Pootey-poot are working to create super-powerful oligarchies.

Will the American Constitution's separation of powers survive this coup from within? Stay tuned.

[BR_Parkway]

6. Especially with the news of their new "father of all bombs" and the

entire new cold war these idiots seem to have ratcheted up lately

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. I know one thing for sure. Anybody who goes along with them and

undermines the Constitution, is a traitor to this country. So all the Bush loyalists better think about that, because, the word is now on the street, all the secret machinations the Bush Administration once relied on are gone, so whether it's right-wing gun nuts or its Liberal intellectuals, there will be resistance to an oligarchy form of government.

[eagler]

40. There might be resistance, but it probably won't matter by that time

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. Resistance is futile?

[endarkenment]

12. We have never had a parliamentary style government.

The model the founders had in mind had more to do with Rome than London. The separation of powers is poorly defined (the current role of the supreme court, for example, had to be invented by Justice Marshall as the Constitution actually never got around to defining the relationship between court and constitution.) The executive branch has periodically taken matters into its own hands, usually, as now, under guise of real or invented existential emergencies, and having done so revealed that the vaunted separation is more a matter of convention than documented law.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. All law in the United States has had to have support of the people.

I think the fear card has been played.

[whistle]

13. Perhaps a secret agreement was made at Kennibubunkport last month

...between Putin, Bush and in dark cover Cheney similar to the very public agreement which Hilter and Stalin made back in 1939 which triggered the invasion of Poland and WWII

<snip>
Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Stalin look on under a portrait of Lenin, August 23, 1939. News of the Pact stunned the world and paved the way for the beginning of World War Two with Hitler assured the Germans would not have to fight a war on two fronts.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pact.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. What military is going to support Bush in his final year and a half?

If he plans to take over in 2008, with what Army? His goodwill has run out.

[Vilis Veritas]

26. There might be some...But not many...maybe Blackwater?

As for the people...

Don't tread on me...

[Festivito]

27. Indeed, plausibly Pinky and the Brain's next logical step.

As a life's game, they are doing quite the job.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. You have to admire their chutzpah.

We're close to shoving the Democratic Congress so that they accidentally fall on Bush and push him over, and there he and Cheney are, still manuevering for more power.

[Deja Q]

44. Do you have proof Bush, Cheney, and Putin are working together?

[The Backlash Cometh]

46. Just commenting on the coincidences.

Sounds like their working in the same direction.

[0007]

7. Kind of reminds me of the preliminaries before a big professional

wrestling match. Putin playing the part of Hulk Hogan, (fishing bare chested and all) While junior is playing the part of _____________ fill in the blank.

'Bring it on!!!

[Subdivisions]

10. Olive Oyl n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Dorkeous George?

[lazyriver]

8. I wonder if this was a dinner topic during Vlad's visit

to the Bush compound this July?

[Ian David]

9. It's okay. Bush looked into his soul and liked what he saw. n/t

[go west young man]

14. I think this is Putin trying to weed out corruption so that Russia

doesn't end up taking a step back to the days of Yeltsin where resources were signed away. A link to Putins speech earlier this year before the G8 Summit. http://mathaba.net/news/?x=555105

[redqueen]

25. Putin weed out corruption?

:rofl:

[go west young man]

29. Believe it or not Putin is former KGB not mafia.

The reason Putin has been able to hold such sway is because the KGB is capable of keeping the mafia in check. If Putin had not come to power Russia would probably be a lot more dangerous. Crime in Russia and the mafia's advocation of it is one of Putin's biggest problems. Maybe, just maybe he is attempting to deal with it. I'm not saying corruption doesn't exist at the highest levels. Just that he has to deal with crime in other levels of society in order to keep the backing of the people. The Russian people do not find him as corrupt as we in the west seem to. Read the link I posted above and you will see that compared to our politicians he is much more forthright with answers to any question. Link here to new Prime Minister article from yahoo. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_re_eu/russia_government and quote:

Zubkov's position in the Cabinet was relatively obscure; the Financial Monitoring Service he headed is an arm of the Finance Ministry that investigated money-laundering.

Zubkov also served under Putin when the two worked in the city administration of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. Putin has regularly tapped former colleagues from St. Petersburg to head top posts in the government.

Putin is wildly popular among Russians, having brought stability and relative prosperity after the often chaotic presidency of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. As a result, whoever is nominated for the presidency by Putin is expected to win easily.


He is placing a money laundering investigator into the position of PM.

[redqueen]

30. We see it completely differently. The KGB now *IS* the mafia.

Check out the documentary mentioned in post 16.

[SteppingRazor]

31. That's actually not as ridiculous an idea as redqueen suggests...

The man Putin put in as prime minister -- thus causing this gov't dissolution (In Russia, firing a prime minister and hiring a new one means dissolving the gov't) -- ran the gov't's money-laundering investigation bureau before his new job.

Putin may be a lot of things, not all of them good (hell, many of them not good), but he's certainly been no friend to organized crime or government corruption.

Of course, another possibility is that Putin is planning on running for a third term in 2012 and wants to name a successor who will gladly step aside in four years -- such as the new prime minister, who has been friends with Putin since the early 90s.

[David__77]

34. I agree. Putin is immeasurably better than Yeltsin.

Russia still has not nearly recovered from the 15 years of chaos and decline under Gorbachev and Yeltsin. It really says something that so many Russians who were adults under Brezhnev look back longingly to those days. In the 1990's, the "market economy" was principally a massive looting operation sustaining a new oligarchy.

[mod mom]

15. BBC: Russia Test Giant Fuel-Air Bomb (claims bigger than MOAB)

great...just what we need more escalation!



Russia tests giant fuel-air bomb

Posted: September 12th, 2007, 12:47pm CEST

The Russian military tests a giant fuel-air bomb which it says is the biggest non-nuclear device in the world.

Russian TV showed a Tupolev bomber dropping the bomb over a test range, a powerful explosion and a four-storey building reduced to rubble.

Claims it is bigger than the Moab, a US device of similar destructive power, seem plausible, analysts say.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6990815.stm

[cascadiance]

16. Watch the BBC "Russian Godfather" series that was on LINK TV Spotlight series earlier...

It really shows you how much of a mob-run government they have over there in detail. After watching that, nothing would surprise you of moves like this that Putin might do! And also you really wonder how much of a model Bushco sees it as that they want to move towards too! Pretty frickin' sickening!

[SteppingRazor]

18. It's a fairly big deal and all, but not at all uncommon.

A lot of parliamentary systems give the prime minister the power to call new elections (i.e. dissolve the government). Often, it's done for political reasons. For example, when the current government is dropping in the polls but is still relatively high, they'll dissolve the government and call for new elections before they slip in the polls any further, so that they have a better chance of maintaining a majority. Just look at Italy, which, up until Berlusconi, seemed to have a different government every week.

[BR_Parkway]

36. Makes sense, I don't see Putin voluntarily cutting his power.

[SteppingRazor]

39. As I mentioned in a post above, this could be Putin preserving his power in thefuture too...

The Russian constitution's presidential term limits specify that no one can serve as president more than twice IN A ROW. Thus, someone could serve two terms, wait a term, and then run again. This could be Putin putting forward an old friend as prime minister (the new one has known Putin since the early 90s) who will then run for president in '08 and simply carry water for four years until Putin can run again in'12.

[originalpckelly]

19. Vlad the Dissolver?

:shrug:

[lonestarnot]

20. scheming sassy pants vlad.

[Broadslidin]

24. Our "Fearless Leader" has surely Spilled His Morning Drink, Over This One.

:hide:

[Doctor_J]

32. Didn't Boris the Bear do this too?

Only by firing missiles at the parliament instead of consulting them. I guess this is one of those bumpy spots that a new democracy comes to every once in awhile.

[eleny]

35. K&R

[Auntie Bush]

37. Bush* will probably do the same thing hear in the homeland!

[panzerfaust]

43. He already has.

[bobthedrummer]

38. The reason Viktor Zubkov is his ally is the fact of Zubkov's former position

as a Russian federal bank administrator-those black budget billionaires are everywhere.

Is this is what the Decider saw when he looked into President Putin's soul six years ago, a man he could do business with and a partner-or the stereotype of the Straussian's USSR nemesis, that had to be eliminated to allow for the extreme (PNAC) plans of the US as sole military superpower?

There is a pattern here to those of US that know our BFEE.

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST

[redqueen]

42. No no no... Putin is weeding out corruption!

:bounce:

[Deja Q]

45. Watch the nightly news and cable shows tonight; please tell us if they make mention of this event.

So far, nothing (Central time zone)

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

47. Sh*t meet Fan

Fan meet Sh*t.