Putin: Electing to Stay on?

By Dale McFeatters

Scripps Howard News Service

Democracy is a fragile institution in Russia and powerful forces work to pull the country back to its autocratic past as President Vladimir Putin dramatically demonstrated this week.

Barred by the constitution from a third consecutive term, Putin, president for the past eight years, announced plans to stand for parliament in elections Dec. 2, putting him in a position to become prime minister.

The current prime minister, handpicked by Putin, is the relatively new, relatively anonymous, and presumably not much of a threat, Viktor Zubkov.

The instant speculation was that Zubkov or some other Putin protege would then run for president next March and, such is Putin's clout at the polls, assuredly be elected.

The new president would then keep the chair warm until Putin can legally run again in four years.

The move is characteristic of the cynicism of the Kremlin under Putin. In a functioning democracy, such a nakedly transparent grab at staying in power would likely cause an aroused electorate to vote the offenders out of office.

But not in Russia. Under Putin, the political opposition has been neutered, the broadcast media brought under Kremlin control and the security services regained some of their old power.

But Putin is indisputably popular. On his watch, Russia has been stable, reemerged as a player on the world scene and enjoyed strong economic growth thanks to high oil prices.

What Putin has done seems to be legal under Russian law, which, to be sure, is unusually flexible of interpretation, and to an extent democratic in that it probably does reflect the wishes of the Russian people.

But because he can do it doesn't mean he should. Institutions do matter in a democracy; at least they should.

Putin's machinations are not over yet.

Technically, he will head the ticket of United Russia, the country's most powerful political party. With United Russia's expected landslide, Putin could choose to become prime minister or stay out of parliament and head a party powerful enough to veto government actions that he disapproves.

If the party gets enough votes, it could rewrite the constitution and Putin might not have to wait until 2012 to run for the office to which he has become so attached.

Kremlinology _ divining the intentions of Russia's rulers _ may not be the moribund Cold War art it seemed.

Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer of Scripps Howard News Service (www.shns.com).