The Media Mirror: What's in today's Russian newspapers?
Comments and more comments on Medvedev and Putin and the 14th anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation dominate the Russian papers on Wednesday.
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA daily quotes political analyst Sergei Markov on Dmitry Medvedev's offer to Vladimir Putin: “It's clear Putin will accept. The electoral slogans we'll see soon are going to read: For Putin and Medvedev”.
VREMYA NOVOSTEI daily gives more expert opinions. Political analyst Gleb Pavlovski: “Medvedev has already answered the question the public was sure to ask sooner or later: what does he have to offer? He offers Putin as Prime Minister. And Putin's influence will not suffer from this. If Putin had simply appointed a successor and become his Prime Minister, he would have put his position of national leader in jeopardy. But Putin went through an election first, and became a leader of the biggest political party which has now become his personal instrument of control”.
Valery Khomiakov, general director of the National Strategy Council: “All this commotion around Medvedev's offer may yet prove to be just a way for Putin to avoid the status of a lame duck. Then again, the switch from a Presidential republic to a Parliamentary one requires serious changes in the Constitution. Besides, if we go that way, we will end up as Ukraine”.
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA daily quotes chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin: “The Constitutional principles evolve. That's inevitable. But there's no need to speed up the evolution. Constitutions are changed only when there's no other option. By the letter of our Constitution Russia is a Presidential republic only by half. So the configuration of Presidential power may change without the changing of the Constitution”.
IZVESTIA daily quotes The New York Times who has Dmitry Medvedev's words spoken to foreign journalists last November: “It is my personal opinion that a Parliamentary republic is unacceptable for Russia at the moment, as well as in the future. Parliamentary democracy doesn't match our social-economic model. Russia should evolve along the same path as some bigger countries with a strong Presidency,” Medvedev had said.
