Russian president Putin dissolves government
Major shakeup comes ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections

Updated: 2 hours, 1 minute ago

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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20738670/

AND....

Russia tests gigantic bomb:

Russia reportedly tests record-setting explosive
Official: ‘Dad of all bombs’ is world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon

Updated: 8:50 p.m. CT Sept 11, 2007

MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.

It was the latest show of Russia’s military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.

Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the “dad of all bombs,” is four times more powerful than the U.S. “mother of all bombs.”

“The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability,” said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks.

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, he added.

The statement reflected the Kremlin’s efforts to restore Russia’s global clout and rebuild the nation’s military might while the ties with Washington have been strained over U.S. criticism of Russia’s backsliding on democracy, Moscow’s vociferous protests of U.S. missile defense plans, and rifts over global crises.

Comparing weapons
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.

Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it’s four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn’t identify.

While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon’s blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.

Like its U.S. predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a “thermobaric” weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature.

Thermobaric weapons work on the same principle that causes blasts in grain elevators and other dusty places — clouds of fine particles are highly explosive. Such explosions produce shock waves that can be directed and amplified in enclosed spaces such as buildings, caves or tunnels.

Channel One said that the temperature in the epicenter of the Russian bomb’s explosion is twice as high as that of the U.S. bomb.

Bomb 'protects the nation's security'
The report showed the bomb dropped by parachute from a Tu-160 strategic bomber and exploding in a massive fireball. It featured the debris of apartment buildings and armored vehicles at a test range, as well as the scorched ground from a massive blast.

It didn’t give the bomb’s military name or say when it was tested.

Rukshin said the new bomb would allow the military to “protect the nation’s security and confront international terrorism in any situation and any region.”

“We have got a relatively cheap ordnance with a high strike power,” Yuri Balyko, head of the Defense Ministry’s institute in charge of weapons design, told Channel One.

Booming oil prices have allowed Russia to steadily increase military spending in recent years, and the Kremlin has taken a more assertive posture in global affairs.

Last month, President Vladimir Putin said he ordered the resumption of regular patrols of strategic bombers, which were suspended after the 1991 Soviet breakup.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20730691/

I think the title of the article is misleading... he didn't 'dissolve the government' in the sense of a coup, he just fired everyone which is apparently what Yeltsin did when he was announcing Putin as his successor. It's still a bit unnerving that a in 'democracy', the President has such powers.

I lvoe this line



I guess that's excluding the actual complete destruction of the environment...

I must say that I'm not too surprised by Putin's actions. He's been showing how democracy is impotent in Russia for a while now.

Has anyone gotten the impression over the last few months that Putin wants the old Soviet regime back, complete with a cold war and all?

Doesn't the phrase 'dissolving the government' usually just mean scrapping the ministers in government and calling new elections and nothing to do with a coup anyways?

Yeah, it's looking like it.

I disagree. I can see how one would get that impression, but I think it's more of a (deserved) to the usa.

What does the U.S. have to do with the fact their government is slowly becoming an authoritarian state again?

I'm referring more to some of Putin's actions, as one man, as mentioned in the first post, rather that the Russian government as a whole. Just in the way he says certain things etc. I'm not suggesting that Russia isn't failing as a democracy

Here's a few articles:
http://economist.com/opinion/displaysto ... id=9682621
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editor ... ownshirts/
http://realclearpolitics.com/articles/2 ... _real.html

Obviously it's hard to know for sure from a distance, but it doesn't look good.

So its sort of like the Clinton camp removing all of the Ws from the keyboards before they left

Russia's Nationalist resurgence is rather interesting. If I didn't know better, I'd think that the USSR would be perceived by true believers as a natural, necessary part of history. Apparently, modern Russia is unable to see it as anything other than an excercise in petty nationalism. Russia gets upset if Lithuania moves a world war II memorial, or the Ukraine brands the Soviet era famine a genocide, as if Russia was the sole owner of Marxism-Lenninsim. Its as if Russia has no identity outside of the Soviet years, and that those years were nothing more than a continuation of Russian imperialism. It wouldn't seem that difficult to me for Russians to seperate themselves from the Soviets, and claim that all Soviet citizens share the blame for the atrocities commited in the 30s and 40s. I understand that by being the sole inheritors of the Soviet Union, they get all the glory of the technological and political achievements, but they try to refuse the other aspect of that responsibility. Is Russia's attempts to be a global 'counterweight' to the US and its Western European Allies and trying to regain its former 'sphere of influence' all just for old times sake?

The past few months? Where have you all been?[ I'll be shocked if Putin actually steps down at all.

Ah yes, but if he becomes prime minister then he'll have to undo all of his efforts to centralize power to the president, and transfer it over to his new position. Is that perceived as the most likely scenario for his continued dominance, or will he just up and change the constitution?

This is a quote from the Economist article that Sun_Devil posted.



That is totally 1984

That's actually what happens here in Australia- before the federal election, the parliament needs to be dissolved before the people are voted back in. Except we have a figurehead governor-general to issue the dissolution, not someone with actual power.

It's not too different to your president calling for every cabinet member to resign before a presidential election, just to appoint a bunch of them in their old posts if and when he/she gets elected.

I wish I had the article, but there was a rather lengthy piece about how much the state news agency has been hyping FDR, and how Putin is the new FDR. It must be so nice to have all of the media in your pocket, it does wonders for your approval rating.

Step down?? Fuck no, Putin's bringing back the old days. The KGB has been up and running again for at least a year now.

ITT: My fellow Americans who don't know how parliamentary government works.

Although in most places, it's the parliament that dissolves itself through a vote of no confidence towards the ministry.




Also, Putin is creepy.