Abstract
Putin announced on 10 December that—to the shock or surprise of most observers–he was nominating Medvedev as successor. Putin would become PM. The oligarch-oriented Abramovich group played an important role in Putin’s decision. The Sechin group was angry, but decided against running a candidate of its own. The situation could have been worse, because at least Putin would be PM and able to control Medvedev.
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Notes
- 1.
Budberg, ‘Putin ego vidit!’, Moskovskiy komsomolets, September 13, 2007.
- 2.
See, e.g., reports in Moskovskiy komsomolets, September 6, and Vedomosti, September 12, 2007.
- 3.
Venediktov interview, www.echo.msk.ru, December 3, 2007.
- 4.
Natalya Melikova, ‘Triumf liberalov – Siloviki proigrali bor’bu za post preemnika’, Nezavisimaya gazeta’, December 11, 2007.
- 5.
Ivanov had just heard that Zubkov had been appointed as PM, and suspected that this spelt the end of his succession hopes. He gave the speech on September 12, 2007. His comment was that Putin had not had an especially successful career in the KGB. It was reported to me by an American scholar who was present.
- 6.
See, e.g., the report on www.ura.ru, December 7, 2010, which quotes insider information that this was when Surkov instructed the sophisticated Kremlin propagandist Gleb Pavlovsky to start promoting Medvedev in his PR activities. Kremlin sources speaking to the press on the day of Medvedev’s anointing claimed that Putin had decided on Medvedev a month and a half before the event. Melikova, ‘Triumf liberalov’, December 11, 2007. This seems doubtful to me, unless what was meant was a very tentative choice.
- 7.
Melikova, ‘Triumf liberalov’, December 11, 2007.
- 8.
Same. Also, Sechin’s distress was suggested by his gloomy demeanor and body language during the Medvedev anointment proceedings on December 10, as observed by Melikova, ‘Triumf liberalov’, December 11, 2007. I got the same impression from the TV footage.
- 9.
For Filin’s article see www.forum.msk.ru, December 24, 2007. Another powerful and substantive attack on the Sechinites was struck mainly at Sechin’s colleague in Rosneft, Sergei Bogdanchikov, but also, by implication, at Sechin too. See Vitaly Sotnik, ‘Medvedevu ‘slili kompromat’ na Bogdanchikova’, ura.ru, February 13, 2008, reprinted on compromat.ru, February 18, 2008.
- 10.
Belkovsky interview of December 28, 2007, http://posit.kz/?lan=ru&id=100&pub=4904, quoted in Jonas Bernstein, ‘Belkovsky Predicts Medvedev Will Tighten the Screws’, Eurasian Daily Monitor, January 7, 2008.
- 11.
Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2007. Linkov is the former assistant to the crusading democratic politician Starovoitova, whose murder in 1998 has never been solved as regards who ordered her killing. Now he simply repeated what he had said publicly several times before, namely that in 1990 Putin had driven Starovoitova around for a day, as she gave political speeches. Oddly, Putin’s press secretary Peskov, who would normally have remained silent, chose to issue an official denial when the news reporter checked the story out with him. He claimed that Putin had never in fact driven her around, even though Putin himself had previously acknowledged doing so. It is hard to interpret this denial other than as an expression of Putin’s fear that Linkov might make further statements as the election campaign went on, and these might embarrass him.
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Reddaway, P. (2018). Late 2007: Difficulty Choosing a Successor—Medvedev Chosen at the Last Minute. In: Russia’s Domestic Security Wars . Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77392-6_12
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