On the last day of May the former Russian ambassador in the USA Yuri Ushakov was appointed deputy head of the apparatus of the government. That means not only serious foreign division in the Putin’s office will be formed but also direct communication with the American administration will be arranged. First days of June – on the eve of his visit to France – Prime Minister Putin continued reinforcing his positions in the foreign policy. At the government meeting he ordered that a commission for granting access to foreign investors to strategic spheres of the Russian economy was formed.   

It shall be reminded that the law on foreign investments in the strategic spheres was one of the last signed by Putin in his capacity of the President and it was intended for Putin the Prime Minister. In fact, the matter is about making the only window for big foreign investors interested in most profitable and important sectors of the Russian half-capitalist economy. 

The key in safe keeping

The step above not only shifts the function of regulation of the important sphere of economic relations from the Kremlin to the White House; it also returns to Vladimir Putin the important tools of influence in the foreign policy, as the big investors, interested in our strategic sectors, are able to influence the positions by the their governments in the foreign bargaining.   

Another step in this “foreign-policy interception” was the meeting of the new industrial deputy prime minister Igor Sechin with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU Commissary for foreign policy. The meeting was arranged not without participation by Vladimir Putin. In his capacity of supervisor of the fuel and energy issues in the government the former “grey cardinal of the Kremlin” discussed with the European Commissary the questions of the energy cooperation between Russian and the EU. Energy cooperation is the main trump card of Russia in relations with the EU, and now this card is in “reliable hands” of Sechin.     

Generally, consolidation of Igor Sechin in the government is an advantage of Vladimir Putin and great annoyance for Dmitry Medvedev. A strong apparatchik Sechin, who was affected significantly with advent of Medvedev to the Kremlin, will be doing his best to get reinforced in the new sphere of influence (industry, fuel and energy), while Dmitry Medvedev is unlikely to be able to communicate with him directly without permission by the Sechin’s supervisor, i.e. Putin.   

Extra prime minister

Having marked off his foreign policy sphere, Vladimir Putin made his first international visit in his new capacity, to France. It’s there that he gave first public grounding of his extra prime minister’s status that allows him to have initiative for discussion of foreign issues with the heads of other states. When answering the questions by perplexed French journalists, he noted that he is not only the chair of the government but also the head of the party that has an absolute majority in the parliament. In other words, the legitimacy of his actions cannot be restricted to a list of duties by a Prime Minister, and he himself is no subordinate to Dmitry Medvedev, as it might be interpreted from the text of the Russian Constitution.  

Reorganization of the inner apparatus process is another proof for the said above. In particular, this is about abolition of the institution of prime minister’s office. Traditionally, the head of government apparatus was appointed by the President’s administration and any man in this post was the “Kremlin’s hand”. As a counterbalance, the head of the prime minister’s office was oriented to the head of the government. The fact that now Vladimir Putin does not even need this counterbalance proves that the government apparatus headed by Sergei Sobyanin is already working in favor of the prime minister and does not submit to the Kremlin any longer.  

Uncoordinated agreement

The above said is proved in the collision of long-ago-prepared and still unconfirmed decree about passing the state-belonging industrial assets to the Rostekhnologii state corporation. Initially it was assumed that Vladimir Putin (when he was in his presidential office) would put his signature under this legally dubious document that actually deals with gratuitous privatization of the property of the Russian Federation. When the signing was not done, they began to speak about weakened position by Sergei Chemezov, the head of the corporation.  

The prepared by Sergei Chemezov design of the decree met the expected resistance in the government and it still stands unarranged. In the meanwhile, this unarranged draft was passed to the Administration of the new president and – amazingly – last week Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Kremlin’s administration advised the White House that they don’t have any objections. In other words, the President’s Administration has approved of a document that has not even been submitted to it and actually it does not really exist. And Prime Minister Putin has got a cart blanche in defining what the Sergei Chemezov’s corporation will be like and which state assets will be passed there. The piquancy of the situation is that it is Dmitry Medvedev who is to sign one the oddest documents in the history of Russian privatization.    

Constitution is no obstacle

The story of the “Chemezov’s decree” is significant in terms of pointing out for certain circles who and where will be taking decisions about sharing out the property within the new bureaucratic configuration. And in modern Russia, he who has opportunity of distribution, he is the real authority. 

The sources in the Kremlin assured us that no changes in the Constitution would be needed, before the exchange of chairs took place between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. Well, why shouldn’t we believe that when actual imposing of censorship, oppression of political activities by citizens and abolition of the governor’s elections did not take any changes?

Formal constitutional procedures and institutions have been emasculated and turned into fake veneer during the eight years of Putin’s office, while the real tools of governing and control were passed to the level of non-public apparatus formal and informal interactions. That means such a system does not need any Constitution for its re-tuning.