|
Ex-KGB man to replace Putin?
12/09/2007 14:05 - (SA)
Moscow - Speculation mounted on Wednesday that First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov will take over from President Vladimir Putin next year after a respected newspaper reported that the ex-KGB veteran will soon win government promotion.
Less than six months ahead of the March 2 2008, presidential election, Russians are largely in the dark as to who could replace Putin, required by the constitution to step down at the end of his second four-year term.
Not one big beast of Russian politics has declared his candidacy.
That leaves the world struggling to predict the next head of the world's largest energy-producing nation and nuclear-weapons superpower, a guessing game that can resemble Soviet-era "Kremlinology".
Now Vedomosti, a respected daily, reports on its front page that Ivanov, 54, is about to oust Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov in a reshuffle.
"Sergei Ivanov could be appointed prime minister very shortly, a source close to the presidential administration said yesterday. The issue is practically decided," the daily wrote.
Ivanov has never said he will run for president, but is widely considered a Putin favourite for the post, along with the government's other first deputy premier, Dmitry Medvedev.
If he were raised to prime minister that would be seen as all but anointing him for the presidency itself in six months' time.
Reports might be a carefully placed leak
Putin took the same route to the Kremlin: he was named premier in 1999, then elected president against little competition in 2000.
Like Putin, Ivanov has a long background in the Soviet Union's feared KGB. He has since served as defence minister, before being moved to the post of first deputy premier with an emphasis on the state's growing role in industry.
Also similar to Putin's pre-Kremlin career, Ivanov has never held elected office.
Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Vedomosti was publishing "rumours", but analysts said the reports might be a carefully placed leak - probably from Vladislav Surkov, one of Putin's chief behind-the-scenes political advisors.
"Surkov has placed his political bets on Sergei Ivanov and is doing everything he can so that this person becomes Putin's successor," Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute think tank, told Echo of Moscow radio.
"Preparation is under way for Ivanov to take the premier's post," Moscow Carnegie Centre analyst Alexei Malashenko told the radio. "It repeats just about the same scenario as when Putin came to power."
Ivanov, a fluent English speaker with a suave manner, is shown almost daily on state-run television. During the summer, state television repeatedly broadcast footage of him chairing a cabinet meeting when both Putin and Fradkov were on holiday.
And last week Ivanov was even filmed playing bowls with Putin, a photo-op that some observers saw as a sure sign that Putin had made his choice of successor.
However, Kremlin-connected analyst Sergei Markov cautioned that Kremlinology remains a murky science.
Although "Ivanov is the most probable successor", his imminent appointment to prime minister is far from certain, he said.
- AFP
|
News
