The Kremlin has not yet familiarized itself with the petition for the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev from the post of prime minister, said presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Over the past 24 hours, two petitions for the prime minister’s resignation have appeared on Change.org
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev (Photo: Donat Sorokin/TASS)
The Kremlin has not yet familiarized itself with the petition for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, which appeared on the website Change.org. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told reporters about this on Thursday, answering a corresponding question from journalists, an RBC correspondent reports.
“No, we don’t know about this yet, I don’t think it requires any reaction,” Peskov said.
On August 4, a petition appeared on the Change.org website demanding the resignation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The authors of the petition note that “the Cabinet of Ministers should be headed by a competent, educated person who cares for the country.” “The fish rots from the head, maybe this is where the “efficiency” of the ministries’ work comes from?!” - the petition says. At the moment, over 5 thousand people have signed it.
On August 3, a petition also appeared on Change.org calling on Medvedev to apologize to teachers and resign. “According to his offensive logic, it turns out that if a teacher has a calling, then he can generally work for free. An excellent justification for his own incompetent work,” writes the author of the petition and calls on the Russian President to dismiss Medvedev. “I also believe that Medvedev, with his statements about the lack of vocation, insulted all teachers in Russia, and therefore must apologize to them,” the petition says. At the time of writing, this petition was signed by about 1.5 thousand people.
Last Tuesday, Medvedev, during a conversation with participants in the “Territory of Meanings” forum, said that teachers who are dissatisfied with their salaries. The statement came after one of the forum participants, a teacher, asked why teachers receive 10-15 thousand rubles, and law enforcement officers receive more than 50 thousand rubles.
“I get asked about this often. Both for teachers and teachers, this is a calling. And if you want to earn money, there are a lot of great places where you can do it faster and better. Same business. But you didn’t go into business, as I understand it,” Medvedev said to the teacher who asked the question.
Peskov also answered journalists’ questions about whether there are difficulties with increasing teachers’ salaries, asked in the context of Medvedev’s statements. “The situation in this case cannot be generalized; the situation varies from region to region. We know that in some regions it is true that the criteria for teachers have not yet been met, but work is underway,” Peskov said (quoted by TASS). He emphasized that the criteria established by the May decrees “have not been reviewed or changed by anyone as of today.” At the same time, the presidential press secretary noted that the situation in different regions may change in different directions from year to year. The President is monitoring this topic, he assured.
The day before, Peskov commented on the publication of the Financial Times newspaper, which after the State Duma elections. We are talking about a column by Timothy Ash, published in the publication on August 1. In it, the author, in particular, predicts Medvedev’s possible resignation from the post of prime minister. “Exercises on the upcoming resignation of the government are not new. We know that with enviable consistency, everyone is guessing at the tea leaves,” Peskov said, adding that “this is such constant speculation that it has ceased to be perceived as information worthy of attention.”
The real or alleged resignation of Dmitry Medvedev in 2018 has repeatedly been the focus of media attention; the latest news on this topic today is related to the Russian Prime Minister’s prolonged absence from public events. Did the head of government really leave his post?
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin
Disappearance of the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister has not appeared in public or on television since August 14. On this day, he met with Andrei Travnikov, the acting governor of the Novosibirsk region. And this is the last public event to date in which the prime minister took personal part.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev His disappearance for such a long period gave rise to speculation about the resignation of the second person in the state. The most logical and harmless version that Dmitry Anatolyevich is on vacation was not confirmed.
There is evidence that his work schedule for the period from August 14 to 24 was quite busy, and it included important events and meetings that had to be cancelled.
Thus, the last meeting of the Security Council, held by the President on August 22, took place without the participation of the prime minister. Permanent members of this body, ministers and heads of structures directly related to state security issues met in Sochi. The Prime Minister, contrary to usual, was not among them; he did not take part in the discussion of the current socio-economic situation, the state of Russian-American relations and the situation in Syria.
Dmitry Medvedev This is interesting. One of Medvedev’s last “public outings” was an official visit to Kamchatka, during which he chaired a meeting of the regional commission and visited a beach with black volcanic sand.
The jar of sand that the Prime Minister allegedly walked on was put up for an online auction by one of the residents of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for 100 thousand rubles.
Short May retirement
This is not the first time the topic of resignation of the current prime minister and his government has been raised. The message that Putin had dismissed Medvedev, which appeared on one of the Internet news portals on April 1, 2018, was questionable due to the date of publication. However, many readers did not take it as a joke at all, but responded with comments in the style of “it’s about time!”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is so unpopular among the people that rumors about his resignation are constantly circulating on social networks and the “yellow” media. But will Medvedev really resign or be sent there in the near future?
Medvedev's resignation is the dream of many after “no money”
During his time in power, Medvedev was, at best, laughed at, recalling his communication with Schwarzenegger, his love for iPhones and dancing. However, the attitude towards him worsened with each new government initiative, since Medvedev, as head of government, bears personal responsibility for each of them.
Then came the famous “there is no money, but you hold on” and Navalny’s film, which caused a stir. Indeed, it was as if Medvedev was deliberately turned into an object of ridicule, a sponge for absorbing the hatred of the population, the evil twin of the “good” Putin.
In recent days, there have been rumors that Medvedev fled the country along with the head of the Central Bank Nabiullina. However, he soon returned.
The peak of speculation regarding Medvedev's possible resignation occurred during the elections and immediately after, when the candidacy of the new prime minister had not yet been announced. The old government resigned its powers to the newly elected Putin. Medvedev himself signed a corresponding order on the resignation of him, his deputies and federal ministers.However, soon the newly elected president convened the government with the same composition, making only some cosmetic changes. Medvedev himself remained at the head of the government. Thus, the president showed favor to his entire former circle.
Medvedev's resignation depends on Putin's rating
But this does not mean that Prime Minister Medvedev’s position is secure. Perhaps, like a festive duck, he is being saved in order to be “slaughtered” at the right moment. We mean that Putin’s rating has been steadily falling since the weakening of the “Crimean euphoria” and will continue to fall. In the face of mass dissatisfaction with the pension reform, Putin was forced to take it under his personal protection, that is, he accepted responsibility for raising the retirement age. There is no doubt that the government has prepared many more reforms to “cut social services” and burden the lower classes with various extortions.
If the degree of social boiling reaches a dangerous level, for example, leading to mass unauthorized rallies in Moscow and the Province or to street riots, then the authorities can “sacrifice” Medvedev by demonstratively dismissing him and retroactively appointing him as a director of some state corporation, like this They did it once with Kiriyenko.
This will make it possible, as it were, to nullify the government’s sins, attributing them all to the demoted prime minister, and again increase the rating of the “tough and principled” Putin. Until new unpopular reforms. But if such a critical moment does not come, then the government will not have to sacrifice its prime minister.
The prime minister does not appear in public, and the president may reconsider pension reform. Is this related, and if so, how?
Where has the chairman of the Russian government, Dmitry Medvedev, disappeared? He has not been seen for nine days, is he alive, healthy, and is such a disappearance a sign of an imminent resignation? Suddenly, the blogosphere and even classical media started talking about this with one voice. Too many questions have accumulated, sometimes very harsh ones. As a result, according to a source close to the government apparatus, the prime minister’s press service had to quickly issue an explanation, which, however, satisfied few people.
According to the official version, Dmitry Medvedev received a sports injury. But it is not clear when exactly and even in what sport. If you monitor the activity of the head of government on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers, it turns out that on August 14 Medvedev apparently met with the acting governor of the Novosibirsk region Andrei Travnikov. After this point, we are talking only about sending official telegrams and publishing on social networks.
The head of government was not present even at the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, which took place on August 22 in Sochi under the chairmanship of Vladimir Putin. The main topic then, most likely, was the Russian reaction to new American sanctions, as well as a discussion of the results of the president’s meetings in the EU, that is, issues directly affecting the activities of the government. Of course, Vladimir Putin can always “briefly” discuss everything with Dmitry Medvedev, but still, the absence of the second person in the state at such an important meeting is clearly a bad sign for any official or politician, even if he is on vacation. And the chairman of the Russian government, apparently, is not even on sick leave, despite his injury. And still - disappeared from the radar.
By the way, Russian leaders disappear with enviable regularity. Dmitry Medvedev himself already disappeared from the view of the media and the public in 2017, after the publication of an anti-corruption investigation of Alexei Navalny, directed personally against the prime minister. As for the head of state, Vladimir Putin, he generally disappears with enviable regularity. For example, the media spent a long time looking for him on the eve of the March presidential elections. There were rumors that he had left to collect his thoughts. A year earlier, in 2017, the head of state also disappeared for several days, and then his disappearance looked even more mysterious.
What is now hidden behind Dmitry Medvedev’s “sports” illness, which turned him off from political life? For example, there are rumors that the prime minister is almost in his bunker developing some kind of terrible response to American sanctions. Another rumor, even less reliable, says that Medvedev, on the contrary, went to some kind of secret negotiations or consultations, either with opponents, or, on the contrary, with Russia’s allies. Regarding, of course, the same confrontation with Washington. This rumor is so absurd that people who adhere to this version cannot even clearly explain why such visits need to be surrounded with such mystery.
In turn, a source close to the presidential administration says that the head of government could follow the example of the head of state and, before making some strategically important decision, go on what is called a pilgrimage. The only question is what kind of solution it is. It is unlikely that the prime minister is so confident in himself that he believes that he can single-handedly resolve strategic issues. That is, we are not talking about revising the pension reform.
Moreover, there are rumors, which have already leaked to the media, that next week, during his trip to the regions, the president himself will make some kind of fateful statement on the topic of changing the retirement age. Sociologists and rumor makers unanimously say that, most likely, the head of state will soften the version of the reform proposed by the government. There is too much dissatisfaction.
At the same time, most commentators do not believe that there can be talk of Medvedev’s possible resignation due to the same pension issue. Of course, rumors circulated almost all summer that this was exactly what would happen. Moreover, on the eve of his appointment as prime minister, there was talk that this was a “government of suicide bombers,” and in the fall, after carrying out the main block of unpopular reforms, the Kremlin would “merge” both the prime minister and his current ministers.
But still, for most, this sounds too radical. As for those few who believe in the possibility of Medvedev’s resignation, they recall the victorious speech of the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, at the State Duma hearings on pension reform on August 21, that is, after the prime minister disappeared from the radar. He talked about his merits, reminded how good the state of the economy was at the time when he happened to be Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. So if suddenly Medvedev is replaced, then the favorite candidate seems to be known.
By the way, supporters of the version of the prime minister’s resignation also recall that just after the summer holidays, one of the most loyal associates of the head of government, his press secretary Natalya Timakova, seems to be planning to leave the White House. “Maybe she already knew something at the beginning of summer?” the rumor makers ask.
Ivan Preobrazhensky
The number of political assets with a minus sign is growing at an unplanned pace.
Let's start, however, with the first one. Has Medvedev really become a burden for the regime?
There is no doubt about it. The Levada Center poll that worried him (45% of respondents were in favor of resignation, 33% were against) in all major parameters, including the breakdown of answers to other questions, is very close to the information from the weekly reports of the near-Kremlin FOM. All “Medvedev’s” indicators are worsening there with each new measurement, and the share of those who believe that the prime minister is “working poorly in his post” since mid-April has exceeded the number of those who believe that he is “good.”
Medvedev has never been perceived by our public as an independent figure. He shone with reflected light, and fluctuations in his popularity indices always followed fluctuations in those of Putin. Perhaps this is still the case. Putin's indices are also declining. But they still remain in the positive zone, while Medvedev’s have moved into the negative.
The prime minister’s reaction to the video “He’s not your Dimon” confirmed his lack of any political qualifications or simply the ability to take a punch. Until recently, the universal helplessness of the head of government created an atmosphere of comfort for Putin, but today it is desirable that people in his circle show other qualities to the people. There is not the slightest hope that Medvedev will find them. It has become an obvious political burden, which, with a strong desire, can, of course, be carried further, but it would be more logical to throw it off one’s shoulders.
However, the logic of the highest decisions cannot be so straightforward.
Who will replace Medvedev? Another figurehead? But premieres of the caliber of Mikhail Fradkov looked like something normal in completely different times. The reaction from below, and not only from below, to someone strange and weak is now completely unpredictable, and instead of releasing it, it can also increase tension.
And the elevation to prime minister of a person perceived as a strong figure is too similar to the appointment of an heir. So, at least, it will be understood and even, perhaps, interpreted as Putin’s most important strategic decision in the last ten years. Also risky and does not increase comfort.
You can, of course, choose a middle ground and appoint as first minister some technocrat programmed for so-called unpopular measures, in order to then please the people with his shameful expulsion. But events can easily spin out of control. The system is rusty and can crumble from any shock.
The fate of the so-called Medvedev government is no less important. “So-called” because this is not one structure, but several departmental alliances, and they are not led by Medvedev at all, but partly by Putin, and partly they act autonomously - both according to their own understanding and in the interests of competing lobbying teams.
But while the prime minister is merely a symbol of government, his political disappearance would call into question all these intertwined ambitions, established governance practices and hard-won balances.
For example, does Putin want the “economic bloc” to fall (the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and related departments, which, albeit with difficulty, work in conjunction with the Central Bank, which is nominally not part of the government)? After all, he is ideologically close to them, albeit not on all points. It is not for nothing that experts in economic history recognize Putin as a spontaneous adherent of mercantilism. There was such a doctrine in past centuries, which prescribed the accumulation of monetary reserves in the treasury, preventing the import of goods, relying on state business and not allowing large excess of expenses over income.
The “economic bloc”’s ideas about what it would be desirable to do are somewhat more sophisticated, but in reality it is pursuing exactly this course. Which the leader likes, but is not particularly popular in court circles, where many magnates feel deprived, and at the same time irritates the people more and more, since the burden of the austerity regime has shifted to him.
They say that United Russia will praise Putin at the May Day events, expressively keeping silent about both Medvedev and the government, and the state-owned trade unions working with it will begin to defame the “economic bloc.” The suspended state of the former prime minister is already being exploited with might and main by fighters for tasty positions in the executive branch, without any signal from above.
Promoting this insignificant person in ancient times, Vladimir Putin, of course, did not imagine that the system would spontaneously turn him into its most important unit, the replacement of which promised so many problems, and, moreover, at the most inopportune time.
Sergey Shelin
