Putin to remain as Russian President despite Medvedev's election?

With almost all the presidential votes counted, the Russians now have a new president: Dmitri Medvedev. Observers, however, are unanimous in saying that while Medvedev is the president-elect, out-going president, Vladimir Putin, will still be running country.

When Putin endorsed Medvedev last year, rumors have it that the former will actually be the one who will run Russia. He cannot just compete in this year's presidential elections because of the term limits imposed by the Constitution. The rumors, however, seemed to have been validated when Medvedev said his policies would be "a direct continuation of that path which is being carried out by President Putin".

Further, Medvedev seemed to have returned the favor by categorically stating that Putin will move out from Kremlin but will remain in the White House as a prime minister. And the prime minister, according to Putin himself, "is the highest executive authority in the country."

According to Adi Ignatius of Time:

Medvedev's rise means the presidency is now in the hands of a Putin loyalist. Yet that doesn't mean Medvedev will have broad authority... But now that Putin is moving office, it seems safe to assume that real power will reside with the Prime Minister.

Time's Sergei Guneyev even opines that the presidential election is "a ritual marking a prearranged transfer of power... with [the] formal outcome [is] already generally known, long before voters even enter the balloting booth" while "Medvedev may be less the heir to Putin's throne than its caretaker".

The Russians, meanwhile, have mixed reactions. According to ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, one of the losers in the presidential elections,

It seems that we don't have elections but a procedure of confirming the appointed president...This disgusts not me but the citizens of Russia."

Others, however, accept these without questions on the belief that only a Putin or an administration similar to Putin's can speedup Russia's economic development. Proof is Putin's un-waning popularity of 70%.

Of the 99% ballots counted, Medvedev got 70.22% vote-share followed by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with 17.77%. Tailing them are Zhirinovsky with 9.37% and pro-Western Democratic Party leader, Andrey Bogdanov, with 1.29%. According to the Russian Central Election Commission, the voter's turnout is only 69.9% of the total number of voters.###

Photo Credit: www.nytimes.com

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