Putin - Medvedev two-step

[ZenGum]

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has announced he will step aside in 2012 polls and backed prime minister Vladimir Putin to return to the Kremlin for a new stint that could last until 2024.

More here or at your preferred news vendor.

I believe that regular non-violent changes of leadership are one of the signs of a healthy democracy - is it not so?

[Aliantha]

Not sure. We've had quite a number of changes of leadership in the major parties here and I don't think they've done much to keep our democracy healthy. I don't think the changes have weakened it, but they don't seem to have helped much.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

More here or at your preferred news vendor.

I believe that regular non-violent changes of leadership are one of the signs of a healthy democracy - is it not so?

It's a sign of course, but in Amerika, this is what we call it: Tag-team.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

More here or at your preferred news vendor.

I believe that regular non-violent changes of leadership are one of the signs of a healthy democracy - is it not so?

Not sure this is one of those cases. Is it really a democracy when they just change back and forth without real opposition?

[Lamplighter]

We had this happen in Oregon's Governor race.
Kitzhaber(D) served his 2 terms, as limited by law,
and then Kullongoski(D) served his 2 terms.
Kitzhaber won another 2-terms in 2010.

What good 2-term limit does is beyond me...
except to effectively do away with institutional memory.
The first term usually gets used up training elected officials how the
government actually works, not how they think it works.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, but when the other guy (in this case his stand in) help get the law changed so when #1 came back he got to stay for 12 years vs. 8?

[gvidas]

REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk via

A vendor demonstrates opening a traditional Matryoshka doll or Russian nesting doll, bearing the faces of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (underneath) and President Dmitry Medvedev at a souvenir market in St. Petersburg September 26, 2011. Opinion polls indicate that Putin, who said on Saturday he would seek a return to the presidency after nearly four years as prime minister, is much more popular than his potential rivals and all but certain to win next March's presidential election.

I guess you can buy the full set online:

Nesting Doll "Medvedev-Putin and Co" is a humorous nesting doll with astonishingly realistic depictions of the major Russian and Soviet leaders of the last century.

Putin and Medvedev share the largest doll, followed by Yeltsin, Gorbachev, Stalin, and Lenin. More than mere caricatures, these faces are immediately recognizable and lifelike.

[ZenGum]

at the dolls.

and at some of you. Sheesh.

signs of a healthy democracy - is it not so?

See that fella? That's me being all ironical and sarcastic.

[TheMercenary]

well done.

[BigV]

This is an unpopular decision among many, including some Russian citizens who have a good working knowledge of the parties involved.

Alexi Kudrin, the finance minister resigned at Putin's dare that he get in line or get out of government. He wanted to be the next prime minister, but that was not in Putin's plans. Putin quashed this challenge. Shame, he appears by all accounts to have been competent, if not completely compliant.

Kudrin has won wide respect, here and abroad, for his handling of Russia’s huge oil revenue, putting billions of dollars aside into a reserve fund that, although now dwindling, stood the country in good stead during the worst of the economic troubles that began in 2008.