Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pligganease]

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin dissolved Russia's government Wednesday in a major political shakeup ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections, the Kremlin said.

The dissolution is expected to result in a new prime minister, who will be seen as Putin's choice to succeed him after he steps down next spring.

The newspaper Vedomosti, citing unidentified Kremlin officials, reported that Sergei Ivanov, a first deputy prime minister and a leading contender to succeed Putin, could be appointed to replace Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

Another first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who is a top executive at natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, is considered the other leading contender.

Under the constitution, Putin has two weeks to propose a new head of government, which the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, then has a week to vote on. Russian news agencies said Fradkov would serve as acting prime minister until the vote.

Fradkov said he asked for the dissolution of the government because with elections approaching, Putin needed to have a free hand to make decisions, including those concerning appointments.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for Dec. 2, followed some three months later by presidential balloting.

"You might be right that we must all think about how to structure the government so that it better suits the pre-election period and prepares the country for what will happen after the parliamentary and presidential elections," Putin said.

[Ya-ta Boy]

For something like 500 years, the Russians had czars who lived in palaces and who served for life, then they had a huge revolution, something like 20 million dead and ended up with comrades who lived in palaces and who served for life. Now they have Putin, who seems to run the show along the same lines, just with elections. Potemkin Villages, anyone?

[Pligganease]

I see the tumbleweeds, but where are EFL, JMO, and everyone else on this thread? Won't touch anything that doesn't have the point of showing how evil the U.S. is?

[The_Conservative]

[thepeel]

[Scotticus]

Yeah, I'm honestly worried about Russia. He's systematically turning the nation into a facist dictatorship, and everyone seems too polite to call him on it. Once he starts "annexing" neighbors, we can really begin the Hitler comparisons. Putin's already made it practically a crime to be anything but Right-Wing Russian (homosexual, opposition party, foreigner, etc).

And all the military stuff is unsettling, too. The new "father of all bombs," the long-range bomber test flights and that whole debacle about the missile shield does not bode well for Russia's closest neighbors, especially the ex-Soviet satellite states.