It is asoap opera rivaling America's in friends and acquaintances climbing each others' ladders into the higher echelons of government, as The New York Times prints — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia fired his powerful defense minister on Tuesday after the police raided the property of a real estate company involved in the privatization of valuable ministry land near Moscow. The firing of Anatoly E. Serdyukov, a longtime Putin ally, is one of the highest-level dismissals tied to a corruption case in recent memory in Russia. A rare move by Mr. Putin, who has been reluctant to dismiss members of his inner circle.
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Anatoly E. Serdyukov |
Nice lead-in, but surface poppycock as the article goes on to explain. - Mr. Putin appointed another longtime political ally, Sergei K. Shoigu, the former Minister of Emergency Situations, as the country’s new defense minister. But - Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov said the firing was necessary to allow the police to continue their investigation of wrongdoing in the Defense Ministry, which he said would not be possible if Mr. Serdyukov remained. Even as Mr. Putin forced Mr. Serdyukov out, he praised the minister’s past work.
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Dmitry Peskov |
According to The Times - Many ministers in the Russian government have secondary roles in business and extensive property and wealth that is typically tolerated unless they fall from favor for another reason, analysts of Russian politics say.
Given time their tarnished reputations should be as glossily corroded as any American influence peddler, no?
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Karl Rove |
Maria Lipman, a researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said in an interview, “In Russia, where what matters first and foremost are informal deals and relations, we should be looking for some kind of intrigue behind this all, some kind of a clash of very important interests.” Uh huh.
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Gazprom Building, St. Petersburg Of course - Such moves - convenient for guess you who - won Mr. Serdyukov no friends within the officer corps, which he once derisively referred to as a group of “little green men.” Officers, in turn, took to calling him “General Stool,” in reference to the years he managed the Mebel-Market furniture shop, from 1985 until 2000, in St. Petersburg. |
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The Times continues - Ms. Lipman said that corruption cases are sometimes opened as a way of settling scores and that “in an environment as corrupt as Russia, almost anyone can fall victim.” |
So The Times states - Why Mr. Serdyukov was removed from office is unclear. But then The Times goes on to explain. - The Russian news media have suggested that there might have been a clash of a personal nature between Mr. Serdyukov and his father-in-law, a close associate of Mr. Putin, or a conflict with military generals. And give details for something described as "unclear."
As follows, according to The Times. - Since his appointment in 2007, Mr. Serdyukov, a former furniture store manager, alienated the uniformed military through changes that thinned the top-heavy officer ranks. It was a policy to alter the “egg-shaped” hierarchy of the Russian Army into a pyramid form. He - fired or forced into early retirement 40,000 officers since 2008 and reduced the number of active-duty generals and admirals by almost half, from 1,107 four years ago to 610 today.

Again, according to The Times - Russia’s defense industry was a crucial base of support for Mr. Putin in the presidential election he won in March. As part of the campaign, Mr. Putin pledged major increases in military spending, promises that have been cast into uncertainty in budget negotiations.
Power's squeaky wheels get the grease!
So, prints The Times - Now that the painful cuts are behind him, Mr. Putin wanted to distance himself from them by summarily firing the unpopular Mr. Serdyukov, thus appeasing the officers, suggested Ruslan Pukhov, director of Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, a Russian research group.
So, prints The Times - Now that the painful cuts are behind him, Mr. Putin wanted to distance himself from them by summarily firing the unpopular Mr. Serdyukov, thus appeasing the officers, suggested Ruslan Pukhov, director of Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, a Russian research group.

Because there's more. - Mr. Serdyukov had also reportedly fallen out with his, close associate of Mr. Putin, father-in-law, other analysts said. In this light, the firing of Mr. Serdyukov, who had overseen the nuclear arsenal, raised the prospect of potentially destabilizing family disagreements within the tight ruling elite in Russia, where nepotism is tolerated.
Since American political staffs are so known to be intolerably free of unnecessary nepotism?
Mr. Serdyukov was married to Yulia V. Pokhlebenina, the daughter of Viktor A. Zubkov, a former prime minister and chairman of, the natural gas company, Gazprom. A post in Russia with power at least rivaling that of minister of defense. Mr. Zubkov first worked as an aide to Mr. Putin in 1992, in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, where Mr. Putin was a vice mayor.
Sounds as if the former defense minister knew the gig was up and had nowhere to run.
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Aleksei Navalny & billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov |
So the soapy opera. - The authorities searched the home of a female director, Yevgenia N. Vasilyeva, a former subordinate to Mr. Serdyukov at the ministry. Though it a pre-dawn raid, they found Mr. Serdyukov at the home, LifeNews, an online publication that often receives exclusive news from the security services, reported. RBK newspaper reported the minister met investigators in slippers and a bathrobe. The police reportedly led Ms. Vasilyeva out in handcuffs and confiscated her jewelry and other valuables.

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Vladimir Ryzhkov |
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Alexei Venediktov |
"It was a demonstrative humiliation," Mr. Venediktov said.
And so transparent.
Come on, Mr. President. Aren't there egalitarian moves to make?
Andrew Roth contributed reporting to The New York Times article written By Andrew E. Kramer.