The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, launched a broadside against the Western intervention in Libya yesterday, describing British, French and US action as "a complete scandal and a complete affront to the international community". In "taking the side of one of the warring parties," he said, "they had committed a crude violation of the UN resolution".
Mr Putin was answering a question about Syria during a dinner
with members of the Valdai group of international Russia
specialists at a restaurant outside Moscow.
The sharpness of Mr Putin's response – he had said that any
action against Syria that caused destruction of the kind that had
happened in Libya, would be "quite unacceptable" – suggested that
he would be just as combative a president internationally, if he
wins a third presidential term next March, as he was in his
previous two terms.
The Russian Prime Minister also indicated growing tensions with
the United States over missile defence, but tempered this with
assurances about Russia's readiness to assist with infrastructure
projects in Afghanistan, as the US moved to withdraw.
This was the eighth year running that Mr Putin has met the
Valdai group, which was set up at the initiative of the Kremlin at
a time when relations between Russia and the West were at a
particularly low point.
This year's venue for the three-hour question and answer session
was a restaurant frequented by members of the new elite at
post-Soviet Russia's first privately owned equestrian centre.
The meeting took place just six weeks after Mr Putin was
nominated by the governing United Russia party to be its candidate
in next year's presidential election. This endorsement, and his
acceptance, virtually guarantee that Mr Putin will return to the
presidency, which he left four years ago after serving the maximum
two consecutive terms.
The expectation is that he will exchange jobs with Dmitry
Medvedev, who was elected president in 2008. Russian commentators
are using the chess term "castling"to describe their job-swap.
New constitutional provisions mean that, if elected, Mr Putin
could theoretically stay at Russia's helm until 2024, as the
presidential term has been extended from four years to six. He
would then be 71. For a man of modest origins, who graduated in law
from Lenin- grad – now once again St Petersburg – University and
spent the first half of his working life in the middle ranks of the
KGB, Mr Putin's rise to power, as the protégé of Boris Yeltsin, is
the stuff of fantasy.
His image abroad may suffer from his KGB past, his pursuit of
the Chechen war and the hard line he has taken against liberal
opponents, Russians generally approve of his stern demeanour and
sometimes salty language – and appreciate what they see as his
restoration of order at home, and respect abroad, after the chaos
and humiliations of the 1990s.
When he arrived for yesterday's dinner he looked tired and
visibly older than last year, with some speculating that he had had
a facelift or Botox treatment. But he quickly engaged with the
questions lobbed at him, while saying little definite about his
plans for Russia if he wins a third term as president. All he
offered was that changing times required changes in policy and
approach, while the aims – political stability and higher living
standards for Russians remained the same.
He praised Mr Medvedev's performance as president, but did not
explain why he appeared intent on reclaiming the presidency from
him. Although Mr Putin's popularity ratings have consistently been
at a level most Western politicians can only dream of since he was
first elected president in 2000, his proposed return to the
presidency has been met in Russia with less enthusiasm than he
might have expected.
Even many of those hitherto sympathetic to him see his plan to
return to the presidency as a retrograde step. The popularity of
the United Russia party is also declining prompting nervousness
among officials as next month's parliamentary elections
approach.
'Berlusconi was one of the great politicians'
Mr Putin might have been throwing out warnings to adversaries
right and left, but he had warm words for Italy's outgoing prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi, whom he called "one of the great
European politicians".
"For all his scandals with their well-known elements," he
said, Mr Berlusconi had given the country stability. He had been
impressed by him "as an open person of the sort you don't meet
all that often in Europe", who "always said what he thought". He
said he valued their friendship – the two men and their families
have spent holidays together – and hoped that "the right people
would take over to continue his cause".
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Mary Dejevsky: Russia Notebook, Part 1
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Mary Dejevsky: Russia Notebook, Part 2
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Mary Dejevsky: Russia Notebook, Part 3
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