Even When Not News, President Putin Is The Story Every Day

     The New York Times headline – For Putin, Report Says, State Perks Pile High, By ANDREW E. KRAMER, notes what everyone knows. Even the emperor’s old clothes are well paid for. MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin is rumored to be among the world’s wealthiest men with an oil-fed fortune worth tens of billions of dollars he vehemently denies, but a report to be published Tuesday suggests the dispute may be beside the point.

     President Vladimir V. Putin may be wealthy, but the trappings of his office are even richer, a Times caption accuses.

     The report is sarcastically titled “The Life of a Galley Slave” after the president’s own description of his tenure in office. Russian opposition leaders describe what they call an extraordinary expansion of presidential perks during the 12 years since the start of Mr. Putin’s first term as president — palaces, a fleet of jets and droves of luxury cars. While one can agree with Vladimir, that’s a lot of jobs that don’t really involve that much of his time till his pampered life floats over whichever perk awaits his convenience.

     So complaints over which President Putin doesn’t really have that much time to spend include, the 20 residences available to the Russian president such as Constantine Palace, a Czarist-era estate on the Gulf of Finland restored at the cost of tens of millions of dollars. A ski lodge in the Caucasus Mountains and a Gothic revival palace in the Moscow region. The president also has at his disposal 15 helicopters, 4 spacious yachts and 43 aircraft, including the main presidential jet, an Ilyushin whose interior is furnished with gold inlay by artisans from the city of Sergiyev Posad, an Airbus and a Dassault Falcon. The 43 aircraft alone are worth an estimated $1 billion, the report says. More jobs, more jobs, more jobs, what’s the beef? There’s less left for everyone else to show off with? Because that’s what happens. Kings replace kings. Is there really a way around that?

     So The Times authors pin the prize, printing, – This, the authors note, “in a country where many people hardly make ends meet.”

     Then The Times becomes more expansive concluding – The report is cast in the genre of the fashion sleuthing that recently revealed designer clothing on the wife of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. Cute couple, is it true The Times is egging the world’s elite into looking at themselves through the crosshairs and deciding how not to be a target anymore. Probably not, maybe.

     The Times states – The authors, Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who has been jailed a number of times on various pretexts, and Leonid Martynyuk, a member of the Solidarity movement, present enlarged photographs of the Russian leader’s wrist during meetings and public appearances, revealing a variety of expensive watches, 11 in all, worth $687,000 at retail — about six times Mr. Putin’s annual salary.

     Remember when Mrs. Gorbachev was criticized for flamboyant displays of wealth? Maybe this time this could let ride in her memory, President Putin. I want you to keep all your toys.

     The Times reporter, ANDREW E. KRAMER, writes, “His lifestyle,” the authors conclude, “can be compared to that of a Persian Gulf monarch or a flamboyant oligarch.” BUT – The report does not dwell on the question of Mr. Putin’s personal wealth, but suggests that it may not be as enormous as many have suggested. The reason he “maniacally clings to power,” the report says, is the “atmosphere of wealth and luxury he has become accustomed to, and categorically does not want to part with.”

     They’re kidding? A President’s ego could lead into enlightened statesmanship, not guardianship over a kingdom’s keys. Yet, the odds Mr. Putin pulls every string is minimal. A lot more people than him are involved, and look how long it’s taken commercial America to get even this far toward everyone having a taste?

     The Times prints – In response to a written query, the Kremlin’s press office said Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, was on vacation and unable to respond to the substance of the report. Not enough bucks for a cell phone, huh? Really like the old days waiting for a grand statement intended to fool the world. It’s just money I hope finds a happy home in general circulation when Mr. Putin really gets down to spreading it around. So think where else would he have so many bodyguards to provide for and feed? The is no other position that warrants his time.

     Geez. If this were Monopoly, the game would be over. Everyone could go home because we’re done. Vladimir won. Call me tomorrow if you’ve found another game where the point is you just get to win. Yes, Vladimir, you represent a team. A portion of successful Russian Society dedicated to never losing so you’ll never quit. But it’s time for your legacy to kick in, isn’t it? Unless you’re just a tool, not a real king?

     In a response reported by Kommersant, however, Mr. Peskov said the residences, aircraft and cars were government property used lawfully by the president. An obviousness admission that leads to more subtly serious satire by The Times. – In fairness, Mr. Putin’s delight in the watches has not been entirely selfish, twice removing a wristwatch for a bystander. The recipients, a boy and a laborer, received Blancpain watches that Mr. Nemtsov estimated to cost more than $9,000 apiece. While John D. Rockefeller, the American tycoon/philanthropist, just gave away dimes to the kids and adults. Look how far things have gotten if Vladimir can give so much away? Or so completely tragic inflation appears to have done us in after all.

     The Times continues to pick on the poor president, citing that – Mr. Putin has never apologized for, at the very least, enjoying the trappings of office. In 2008, the Russian Information Agency reported, Vladimir said, “I’m not ashamed before the citizens who voted for me twice. All these eight years I toiled like a galley slave, from morning until evening.”

     Yeah, we’re all working hard on your side Mr. President. If not for that satisfaction at the end of a day for a job well done, a man in your position just wouldn’t know how to survive without access to all the known spiritual fulfillment the world has to offer. Yes, an incredible load Russian people want to help you carry.

     But sadly this Opposition Photo-Op combined with this coverage Russian Activists Criticize 8-Year Drug Sentence in the same day Times, by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, leans hard on the hope the new day in Russian social justice is dawning. So remember, when the points are all that’s left to count in your legacy, Mr. President, remember what Stalin is remembered for. Answering there was nothing he could about anything because it was someone else’s job. Scapegoat what your real problems are with democracy, then that’s where we are, no one willing to take the blame or they’ll lose their job. Which dude, Mr. President, you should be above now, not just claiming objectivity.

8/28/2012

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Even When Not News, President Putin Is The Story

Big Deals Made At ECONOMIC SUMMIT In Russia

Titling their news summary, For Putin, a Flight of Fancy at a Summit Meeting‘s Close, The New York Times described President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, limping and in pain this weekend, but as the annual Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting wrapped on Sunday, in Vladivostok, the Russian leader showed trademark swagger by hitting back at political opponents who mocked his latest stunt, flying a motorized glider to help lead endangered cranes from Siberia migrating south.

Oh yeah? I bet if Michelle Obama flew that glider we couldn’t hear enough about how significant a journey that was for renewing the public’s involvement in what nature means, now that we’re so inundated by machines.

So the President of Russia has a photo-op helping nature. Fabulous, next he’ll grow a garden in the Kremlin, himself, or at least help during The Photo-Op. As with litter on beaches, or crap blowing in the wind through our parking lots, people have to even be coerced into cooperating with what’s good for them. So this means President Putin is signed up for whatever it takes to get and keep the earth’s atmosphere clean?

Hardly? As The Times states – Seizing on a question at his closing news conference, that may or may not have been planted by aides, Mr. Putin signaled that he was not bothered by jokes and ridicule, including assertions that some cranes, like some Russian voters, opted not to follow him. “Only the weak ones,” Mr. Putin said, after urging the audience to applaud the question, which was asked by a reporter from the tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda. “The weak ones didn’t follow me.”

Mr. Putin also made clear his little interest in working with the United States to encourage a political transition in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s government continues to cling to power with a violent crackdown on the rebels there.

There it is, isn’t it, Vladimir? No one has bid enough to compensate for Russia’s cooperation. And true, as the Russia’s President has spoken, it’s hard to guess which crew will end up ruling the neighborhood. All President Putin knows for sure is he’s not moving in.

The Times continues, painting President Putin’s picture of the crane episode as a parable about how his tight control and strong leadership keep Russia from descending into chaos.

The New York Times quotes President Putin, thus, “To be frank with you, not all of the cranes flew, and the leader, the pilot, has to be blamed because he was too fast in gaining speed and altitude and they were just lagging behind; they couldn’t catch up. But that is not the whole of the truth: simply during certain circumstances, when there is strong wind and bad weather, the pilot has to lift very speedily or otherwise the flying machine vehicle could overturn and capsize.”

The Times’ DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and STEVEN LEE MYERS maintain – It was a thinly veiled description of his view of himself as Russia’s paramount leader, and it echoed a speech he delivered to lawmakers just days before parliamentary elections in December, in which he urged them to unite behind him “so that the boat really does not turn over.”

Big deal. The Press can tabulate rhetoric. Swaggering President Putin is just playing. How could it matter that The Times can state – Accounts of widespread fraud in those elections led to big protests in Moscow last winter, when tens of thousands took to the streets, often chanting “Russia without Putin!” Because Mr. Putin still went on to easily win election to a third term as president, and, on Sunday, essentially mocked his mockers of his bird adventure, deriding them as out of the mainstream as odd ducks, perhaps, or dodos. “What else can be said? There are certain birds that don’t fly in flocks. They prefer to have their nests separately. But this is a different sort of problem. Even if they are not members of the flock they are members of our population, and they have to be treated very carefully to the extent possible.”

Pawns kept in their place? You’re kidding? Right, President Putin? Maybe? Because public relations is just a toy. Boisterous, public, political theater. A ceremonial backdrop to The Real World point of what Vladivostok was all about.

Even The Times concludes – The jabs at the opposition were bookended by more serious declarations of success about the, held for the first time in Russia, summit meeting. Mr. Putin used the event to underscore his country’s eagerness to sharply increase business and trade ties with the Far East. “We believe we have reached all the goals set for the APEC leaders’ week in Vladivostok,” he declared.

And – In a joint declaration, the leaders of the 21 members of the economic conference, which includes nations from the Asian Pacific and several North and South American countries that border the ocean, applauded efforts to address economic damage in Europe.

In the declaration, the leaders also said they would continue to promote free trade and combat protectionism, particularly in food exports. They announced a new agreement to reduce tariffs on a list of goods identified as beneficial to the environment, and they pledged to combat corruption and protect endangered wildlife.

Platitudes. Yet business moves forward, nonetheless. Numerous important deals were reached, including an accord signed by Japan and Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly. A station that will help increase Russian energy exports to Japan, which is in need of alternatives to its largely shuttered nuclear power industry.

The Times prints – Mr. Putin’s swagger could be seen in relations with the United States, too. Only days before the meeting, injecting himself into the American presidential campaign calling President Obama honest and rebuking Mitt Romney. But when it came to Syria and Iran, he rebuffed the Obama administration and its highest representative here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton met privately with Mr. Putin and sat next to him for 90 minutes at the closing dinner on Saturday night, chatting about wildlife and the Winter Olympics that Russia will host in 2014. But the two failed to bridge the gaps that divided them.

Really? Apart from reporters she grilled him on Olympic wildlife, or more probably spent the dinner exchanging goo-goo eyes with everyone attending they wanted to maintain influence with. For appearances sake, they could have talked about the Vail, Colorado ski season, so the entire room knew who remained the most powerful. As Mrs. Clinton said in Vladivostok before returning to the United States, “We haven’t seen eye to eye with Russia on Syria. That may continue.”

His move, President Putin’s power to decide, is what he’s not giving up.

According to The Times, Russia, along with China, has vetoed three United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Syria. But Mrs. Clinton had hoped Russia would show more flexibility as the violence has worsened. Instead, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, publicly rebuked her on Syria, as well as on Iran.

“Our American partners have a prevailing tendency to threaten and increase pressure, adopt ever more sanctions against Syria and against Iran,” Mr. Lavrov said. “Russia is fundamentally against this, since for resolving problems you have to engage the countries you are having issues with and not isolate them.” While President Putin, in his news conference, called his discussions with Mrs. Clinton “useful” and said they concerned “primarily economic ties and certain political issues. We touched on hot spots in the Middle East, in Asia. It was a constructive, very businesslike conversation.” But, he added, “no special decisions” were made.

In his summary on Sunday, Mr. Putin expressed condolences to the Chinese, enduring a tragic earthquake, as well as to Ms. Gillard, the Australian prime minister, whose father died unexpectedly.

Mr. Putin also strongly defended the huge expenditures in Vladivostok that were undertaken in preparation for the economic summit meeting. Including money for three new bridges and an entire new campus for Far East Federal University. Two luxury hotels, a theater for opera and ballet and an aquarium are under construction.

Sometimes enterprise is government, right, Vladimir? Certainly economic compromises are made, but, between whom?

The Times prints that Mr. Putin said, “We will certainly continue developing and improving the living conditions in the Far East,” arguing the goal is to “tap the new opportunities that integration and partnership with our Asia-Pacific neighbors opens up.”

And this is what a third elected term is for President Putin? The highest public official in your country micro-manages international business?

The Times said Russia’s president was swaggering. So, without directly saying so, implied how now is the time to let the power trip go. No? What really requires the Russian President’s attention is how far, and well, trickle-down economics permeates your country. Address what is of real consequence, Vladimir. Your legacy is not just how much money Russia made, but what all your fellow Russians are left with today, and tomorrow.

Good Friday, Workweek Done? I Probably Work Easter. "How're You?"

Business 101. If we're happy ... Ms. Copacetic ... 

    Sigh. Not like trucks are rolling but, however stagnant things appear, change happens. I just know beneath the panic of our being apart? We're going to laugh. Otherwise, not our gig. Others would be better children-respecting adults to play with. And played by ABC-7's Male Hierarchy FigureHEAD's really? Nero fiddling all over again. 

Sure, bears repeating. 

    Jesus Christ emphasized prostitutes to show Economics are wrong as men's domain. Grown how little near 21 Centuries After? 

    Nearer ...

    Still George C. Scott's intoxicated he and Dr. Strangelove see eye-to-eye. 

    Come on NOW. Every historian. The question is absence of moral triumph. The present's fiddling the past. Manipulation of the future. Uncovers that eventually without moral progress, what history teaches warns history isn't learned. The past doesn't, and does fiddle the future. While the present's fiddling fumbles futures but hopefully learns from mistakes.

Nero born 12/15/37. Fiddled, Rome burned 7/18/64. 

Reigned 10/13/54 to d. 6/9/68. 

Edited FROM Essay: The Colonial Rule of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin 

      Historians carry on deciphering. 

    Really. All down to who, how, what, why, and where the publics' minds are bent. Focused best as Power's most useful, as essential, asset. Fear works. Why nations reticently (shielded morally behind blacklisting perverting-desperate-worse) pardon Russia's emphasizing Their Empire. Thereby not facing The Prolonged War Against Ukraine is also resolved fear for their empires as well? Sigh. Putin defending Russian Historical and Christian Honor is CRACKPOT. 

Nonsense Not Facing Dishonoring America 

    Also the wall that needs down?  Despising Netanyahu is clearly LOVING ISRAEL and All Religion too. GOD is GOD. Not precisely a religion as GOD as everything encompasses everything we are. Lord Bless Women Rule ...

HELL's only where Deserving Souls reside. ... Sisterhood no longer denied and demeaned by men. 

        So, SHOW OF HANDS where historians perspectives lie? Historians are responsible for whether or not their leaders ever feel justifiably embarrassed. Putin's in that unaffected atmosphere. As Modi of India also treats his faults as armored. Historically poked full of holes, elitists Modi, Putin, Leaders of Chinas etcetera on-and-on yada-yada on. 

    Logical. But under command that's as coercively influenced as transgressions State claims to control. State Honor Is Not Unlimited Power Over People. CASE CLOSED.

Ukraine-Kiev always acquisition relative to Muskovy/Moscow/Russia. Proud of War. Statesmanship's dishonor forevermore. No Surprise Prefer History Books Removed

    Not neighbors united by proximity as generations of Russians are still now told. Ukraines' History is hardly even owned by Ukrainians themselves. History the Putin Regime can't face. Stalin shipped and killed a lot of people removed from Ukraine among other czars' sins.

    O come on now! History's due homage. NOW. Now when people should be coming to grips. It's not just more history, it's what we'll never fully grow up from till fully faced. Current War & Authoritarianism, of even the democracies, is repetitive nonsense. Not only rhyming, but humanity's killing ourselves repeating ourselves to death. Amusingly, no. 

    Down in history Stalinist, Vladimir Vladimirovitch. Must, deep down be really dissatisfied. After all. Gazed on as more arrogant than God? As if God's a fully made up human emotional machine. You President Putin are part of twisting what has no place here. This platform of yours defending Western Christianity? Crap. Crapping all over history, your crew is. Time you faced long fed up. 

    "Who are you?" You could ask. I might respond I've been screaming from the rafters so long, oxygen's thin what you morons planned left. Muscovy announcing a dome for city to avoid the massacring pollution's effects of being monsters ourselves? 

    Ignoring ramifications is KING as inhuman Dumpster religionized. No useful place for those without  interest in keeping straight records. (Walt Disney says spit on the Male Figurehead Liars, Dear Abigail.) Advancement acquires ability to head forward, straight. Unnecessary to make things up, BillBob Iger.

    See? From where I sit, how historians view is critical. Haven't risen above the PR din in generations, but coming. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and I are going to smoke a joint.  

    Air's thin up where President Putin and Netanyahu and Modi of India and the Etceters planted their "Bad Egg" heads. Meanwhile we're expendable canaries. Collateral Damage money's made on. Is it possible the conscience-less learned to breathe carbon dioxide? Nitrous oxide's probably connected to their evil celled brains somewhere. Thing with drugs is they work on you. Why beer disturbed men hit women. Deluded delusions pervade worsening those with no conscience hold on their limitations. Terribly disgusting how a certain California Military Industrial Complex New Yorker believes power solves his everything. No not Nixon. Though The Tricky Dick was ensconced here for a time. Believe the game's a stacked deck. How history reads for future subscribers. Chemical Empire DuPont Delaware and co-habitants of the Koch Brothers promise history can be hid from forever if invested in right. WRONG!

    However you won. However this turns out. Since killing is worst of all and important to you, you've done it. How disappeared am I exactly. Ritter looks at me but I can't risk his lying to me again, for his sake, so he can't recognize MY WATCHING HIS SCUMBAG SELF. Right. I impossibly care Putin changes. Ritter and Iger. Face yourselves and feel what not giving a ___t really means for you two. Drag gum Iger? Condemned with that gnat. Yes, "NO COMMENT." Company needs removed from Ritter making IT a joke. 

    Historically? True. You, President Putin rose to equal Stalin's demonic ambivalence. Both of you so obviously prideful smirks. 

    If I were sadder now I'd be crying. Get it President Putin? If you think you've been having fun, you could have a lot more. Especially since no more people should die over what you're doing. However you wish. Remember. You can't tell history what the future thinks. And from what you've made available, means you misinterpret any sympathy. 

    Both Presidents Egomaniacs on your shaky three-card-monte table, President Putin. Your two faceless cards. Morbid thinking what conspired from the resolve for manipulative power in you two and the manipulators profiting from you self-idolized pawns. Rewarded. Good moves you two, in your ways. But checkmate? I think you both lie, you've the power of Queens. 

    The past sings to us. Come on now. Behold our foundations and fates. Foundations and fates that should amount to more than just crumbling tourist attractions. New York City promised the world inTimes Square and just pocketed money for big signs saying beware corporations were as devious with promises as the rest of you. Republicans Mayor Adams and Governor What's Her Name. Pure set up scammers. Give us lots of money pretending what is known makes New York look stupid. Wall Street did not create the Banana Republics, the lost immigrants ran from. Our Elitists Bill Ritter is the idolized target for. Country? Face condemnation, or scapegoat yourselves to death. Either way, Robert Iger I care more for you than Lamest Brain. GET IT! Don't bother telling me you don't believe. GOD nor I care less about your "pay grade" level. Tried well beyond your self-idolized insignificance NOW.

    Our era's become we can't afford to pay you. But could you, the customer, please buy our products so we share in our data's prosperity. And tip too as we take no responsibility for exaggerating the inflation that's designated all of us so irresponsible. Judges may as well put me in the hoosegow to get all ya'll off. For the time being. Sayonara. 

    Not time for revolution. Time for Common Sense. And Common Cause?Time's upon us where political pursuit reminds us sincerity matters more than everything, except emblematic patriotism itself. Could be I'm also obsessive about patriotism too? Except I understand what's specifically led throughout history up to now. The fact the tangled web Shakespeare wove, shouldn't describe forever now. And does, oh no ...

    History's more than a dream, President Putin. Boo! 

• 

  US Ex-President Donald John Trump vs. Charles Malcolm Fraser 

  Polling BoothPlease, feel free. A ballot. 

  https://vimeo.com/742249556

  
  

  Saturday, September 22, 2012

Noted Stalin Biographer Runs Down Historical Parallels To Journalist Masha Gessen’s Phone Call From President Putin

Russia’s Board Is Set Up To Appear Like Solitaire But Political Chess Never Is

So a New York Times headline, Putin’s Russia Hits the ‘Clear’ Button on the Medvedev Era By ELLEN BARRY insinuates the cat’s out of the bag. Russian co-leadership is being rolled up and put away. Having never had more than symbolic strength for the game anyway, The Scapegoatshould have his place prepared soon.

As Ms. Barry tells it — Lately, it seems, no decree of Dmitri A. Medvedevis too small to overturn. So – Signs have emerged that Dmitri A. Medvedev occasionally acted against the wishes of Vladimir V. Putin. Starting, apparently, right after surrendering the Russian presidency toVladimir V. Putin.

Mr. Putin reversed his predecessor’s decision to decriminalize slander just eight months earlier. He raised the retirement age for top officials to 70, foiling Mr. Medvedev’s attempt to “rejuvenate” Russia’s government by imposing an age limit of 60, or 65 in special cases.

Still, inconsequential. A leader fashions their own stamp as Mr. Medvedev obviously might have also tried himself when figure-head of state. While it has not reached the point where Mr. Medvedev is being airbrushed from photographs, the four and a half months since he left the presidency have brought a pointed departure from his earlier course. The words “reset” or “modernization,” that Mr. Medvedev used, are seldom mentioned. And privatization of state-owned companies is in doubt and the direct gubernatorial elections Mr. Medvedev reinstated as a parting gesture have been weakened by the insertion of a Kremlin-controlled screening process for the candidates.

Still that shouldn’t spell an end to the hope of the good cop/bad cop era. Except there’s speculation – Criticism of Mr. Medvedev has begun to appear in mainstream outlets. Thursday’s news about rescinding Mr. Medvedev’s time change seemed like more of the same. Wrote journalist Mikhail Fishman on Facebook, “So in winter it will not get light an hour later, and in summer it will get dark an hour earlier: all this with only one goal: so that Mr. Medvedev, greeting the early dusk, will remember that he is nobody.”

The political consultant Gleb O. Pavlovsky marked the occasion coining the term “de-Medvedevization.”

But The Times reporter conjectures – It is too early to write off Mr. Medvedev, who recently turned 47. He is now prime minister and remains the leader of the governing United Russia party and the second-most-important politician in the country. A year ago he demonstrated his loyalty to Mr. Putin by walking away from a second term, and Mr. Putin is known to reward loyalty. All in all, this summer felt less like a decisive change of course than a period of frenetic transition, without a clear plan waiting at the end.

And how else would smoke and mirrors appear other than whimsical?

Still, according to The Times, there were unmistakable signs Mr. Medvedev was being cut down to size. On the fourth anniversary of the August 2008 war with Georgia, an event that lifted his popularity, and each anniversary he reminisced on television about the tough, solitary decision he made to send the army into Georgia while Mr. Putin was away in Beijing.

But – This year’s retrospectives were driven by the appearance of an anonymous documentary film in which retired generals excoriated Mr. Medvedev as timorous and cowardly. And when Mr. Putin was asked about the video, he responded by turning Mr. Medvedev’s narrative upside down, telling journalists he had personally approved plans for the assault in advance. That during the crisis he spoke repeatedly by phone to Mr. Medvedev and the Defense Ministry.

Lah de dah. Each man spoke from the point of view of their own political convenience. Name one instance that hasn’t happened?

Another blow that fell on Mr. Medvedev a few weeks later. Still just a public affair but hardly the stuff of all night Kremlin arguments that should bring tyrants to blows. No? well – While still president, Dmitri asked prosecutors to review the case of Taisiya Osipova, an opposition activist who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on what her supporters said were fabricated drug charges. His complaint led to a reversal and retrial, in which prosecutors sought a more modest sentence of four years. But – In August the judge, in a highly unusual move, sentenced Ms. Osipova to twice that time.

Alexander Rahr, a Russia scholar and biographer of Mr. Putin, said hard-liners around Mr. Putin blamed Mr. Medvedev for the burst of dissent that shook the Kremlin last winter. According to this critique, Mr. Medvedev’s presidency ended the “climate of fear” created during Mr. Putin’s second presidential term. Though Mr. Medvedev did not push through significant structural change, influential insiders contend that he “created an atmosphere” that led to protests, Mr. Rahr said.

Yes, it’s the scapegoat’s fault and certainly not due to a tyrannical image.

“They are furious,” Mr. Rahr said. “They think Medvedev woke up this new Russian revolution.”

At best a vacuum people put some hope in. But certainly not the catalyst enduring tyranny is.

Konstantin Remchukov, the editor in chief of the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, says the political chill that set in this summer is familiar to anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union. He counted 30 months of easing political constraints, starting with the publication of Mr. Medvedev’s essay “Forward, Russia” — in essence, a critique of his predecessor’s record — and ending with Mr. Putin’s inauguration this recent May.

Mr. Remchukov said, “When you have a situation more or less your whole life with very little periods of thaw, you can’t treat it seriously. I remember all these periods of being more warm, cooler, frosty.”

But Ms Barry concludes – In a way, the biggest surprise is that Mr. Putin has found it necessary to roll back Mr. Medvedev’s initiatives in the first place. For the four years of the “tandem” arrangement, the consensus among Western experts was that Mr. Medvedev did not do much without specific approval from Mr. Putin. On the day the two men announced they would switch places, a top Obama administration official shrugged off a query about whether this would herald a change of course in foreign policy: “Everyone knows that Putin runs Russia,” the official said.

Ms Barry – suggests that many of Mr. Medvedev’s initiatives toward the end of his presidency, sporadic and incomplete as they were, were undertaken independently, and in some cases against Mr. Putin’s wishes. Though his talk about change was generally not accompanied by action, the Russian presidency is so powerful that for four years, Mr. Medvedev needed only to speak and the system began to work to promote his ideas. That time, however, is over.

“Even the time change; just everything Medvedev touched,” Mr. Remchukov said. “This is the most sad story now, when I see that even minor things they are trying to eradicate from our reality.”

So it’s official Kremlin insiders are shaking things down and setting up the scapegoat because some people are grunmbling in the streets. That’s timid rule dudes, same bs you’re laying on Mr. Medvedev to scapegoat with him. And yes, Lr. Putin has more power in his sneeze. Nothing will smudge the polish on his authoritarian veneer, unless he has the guts to do it himself. Some day President Putin it won’t all be about shifting a few pawns to the other side of the board. The castles are up, it’s time the people were let in, and just as Mikhail Gorbachev brought the future, this era’s future is up to you.

But, see, here’s the thing, Watching how the Kremlin pretends to rule tends to hide what really goes on in peoples’ lives when government does all the talking and deciding. This Times video series, Above the Law follows the Russian peoples’ realinsists on being detached from normal lives. Apparently the communists superiority complex is what still hasn’t died.