Russian President Vladimir Putin became head of the dominant party United Russia yesterday, ensuring his rule over a huge parliamentary majority when he becomes prime minister next month.
The entire party congress gave Putin a standing ovation as he took the podium.
“What concerns the leadership of the party, the chairman’s post, is a natural, successful and civil element of the democratic state ... and that is why I gratefully thank the party for their proposal and I agree to take the head of the United Russia party,” he said.
In a scene that evoked memories of Soviet Communist party congresses, the more than 600 delegates held up a sea of white cards first to vote for an amendment to the charter to create a new post tailored for Putin, and then to unanimously vote Putin into the post.
Putin will formalize his leadership of the party on May 7, the day after his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated as president.
Medvedev will have a bare 24-hours in office before Putin also on May 7 assumes the post of prime minister.
The two have promised to rule in tandem and there are no visible signs of conflict.
Medvedev, who is not a party member, took the stage at Gostiny Dvor just a block away from the Kremlin in order to introduce his mentor.
“This proposal is both logical and timely ... it will open up new prospects in Russia for the forming of a strong parliamentary majority,” he said.
Medvedev called the party that counts among its own almost all of Russia’s regional governors and political elite a “powerful political resource” while Putin said it could act “as a single organism in the interest of the Russian people.”
United Russia’s party head Boris Gryzlov had Monday proposed the creation of a new supra-leader post, which he said would be “additional,” “separate” and “above” any of the day-to-day management duties.
Putin has becomes party chairman without officially joining United Russia. Instead, he has cultivated the image of a czar-like figure who is above party politics, which many Russians see as a corrupt, crass business.
Mindful that many who support him identify United Russia with the country’s top-heavy bureaucracy and self-interested elite, Putin has avoided undue entanglement with a party he himself once called a magnet for “rascals.” The party made a last-minute change in its charter on Monday to enable him to become its chairman without even joining.
By taking formal leadership of United Russia, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said, Putin would be sending a signal that despite his move out of the Kremlin “the power remains, as before, in Putin’s office.”
Putin has promised not to shift any presidential powers to the prime minister, who under the Constitution is a distant No. 2. But he has made no secret of his plans to use the Duma to ensure that his will is carried out even after he steps down as president.
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