Yes, Friends, there’s a Presidential Election in Russia next year (March 4 to be exact), and like Президент Обама, Владимир Владимирович is already on the campaign trail! Here’s what he’s up to:
Lord only knows what that man in the chair is thinking, much less the nurse behind them. Which is where you come in…to the Overnight Open Thread!
Posts Tagged ‘Vladimir Putin’
Caption THIS OOT
by Deplorable Macker ( 156 Comments › )Filed under Elections 2012, Health Care, OOT, Russia at November 18th, 2011 - 11:00 pm
Russian Jews support the Putin’s Presidential bid
by Phantom Ace ( 9 Comments › )Filed under Headlines, Judaism, Russia at October 11th, 2011 - 4:38 pm
Despite all the accusations of antisemitism directed towards Russian PM Vladimir Putin, Russians Jews have a different take. Under Putin, anti-Semitic views are no longer accepted among Russian politicians. The Jewish community in Russia is flowering and Putin himself has shown great respect for their contributions to Russian society. As a result, many Russian Jews are happy to see Putin return to the Presidency.
Most Russian Jews, it seems, say that Putin’s return after a four-year stint as prime minister is good news for stability, and that’s good for the country’s Jewish community. Critics, however, say it’s a sign of Russia’s stagnation.
Echoing traditional Jewish sensibilities, Yevgeniy Satanovsky, head of the Institute for Israel and Near Eastern Studies, a think tank in Moscow, says that Jews do not have to worry about Putin.
“Putin is neither an anti-Semite nor anti-Israel,” Satanovsky said.
For Russia’s Jews, whose estimated numbers range from 500,000 to 1 million, Putin marked a departure from the anti-Semitism of past Communist elites and of the once all-powerful KGB, which he served for nearly two decades.
Putin was the first Russian leader to visit Israel, where he attended an official reception. He also visited a Moscow synagogue, participated in candle-lighting ceremonies on Chanukah and reportedly had an open door for one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, Berel Lazar.
While human rights groups reported surges in xenophobic attacks at various times during Putin’s presidency, Jews rarely were the targets.
Lazar said Putin should be credited for driving anti-Semitism out of Russian political discourse.
Vladimir Putin is a complicated man. He is many things, but being a Jew hater is not one of them. On the contrary he has shown respect to the Russian Jewish community. This explains their support of him.
Putin announces his plan for the next 6 years.
by coldwarrior ( 8 Comments › )Filed under Economy, Headlines, Politics, Russia at September 25th, 2011 - 6:51 pm
Do note: he is being positive, what Russia CAN do, not focusing on negatives like many of our politicians do.
Vladimir Putin has addressed the United Russia party convention on Saturday with almost an hour-long speech, in which he actually announced his election platform, after Dmitry Medvedev promoted the premier for president.
Drastic GDP growth as economic priority
He started with the economy. Putin believes Russia GDP growth should be increased to 6-7 per cent a year. Presently Russia’s economic growth is about 4 per cent, while for most developed economies the figure stands at 1-2 per cent.
“But we shouldn’t be mistaken in this regard, in absolute terms, this 2 per cent is bigger than our four.” That is why he said acceleration of the economy is needed. Otherwise, Russia will not be able to provide modern life standards for its citizens.
He added that in the next few years Russia will be able to join the top five of the world’s greatest economies.
In the next five years the country will be able to secure its full food independence, to a large degree thanks to the fact that “Russia is bringing back its leader status in the grain market.”
Putin said he intends to further improve the business climate, “providing conditions for fair competition, stability and predictability of economic policy.”
He added that all “bills dealing with the interests of business will be discussed with business community in order to rule out the possibility of new barriers for business initiative.”
Vladimir Putin also wants business to be more involved in social projects, culture and education.
“In a word, we expect that business to live in the same rhythm and have the same concerns at heart as the entire country,” he said.
In this regard, he also touched upon tax policies.
“If we talk about social justice, taxes for the rich (and there are more and more of them) should be higher than for the middle class,” Putin stated.
Changes in government
Putin said that he was sure that after the victory in parliamentary elections Dmitry Medvedev is capable of building an effective team of managers and chairing the government.
“I am sure that United Russia will win and, with the support of the whole population, Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] would be able to create a new, effectively functioning, young and energetic team of managers and head the government of the Russian Federation in order to continue the work on modernization of all sides of our life,” Putin said.
Military should be fully re-armed in 5-10 years
Putin said that the Russian military forces should be fully re-armed in the nearest future.
“In the coming five to 10 years we must fully re-arm our army and navy,” the United Russia leader told the party convention.
He added that the task will be carried out not only by the state defense industry, but also by civilian engineering enterprises.
“I consider the growing state order on defense one of the most important modernization tools both for the defense industry and the whole Russian economy,” Putin said.
The prime minister promised that the state defense order would be drafted not for one year ahead, but for three years, to ensure the stable and rhythmical work of the defense industry. In Putin’s words, such a move would significantly improve the economic component in the enterprises’ work.
Strengthening civil society
Civil society should control the authorities, and initiatives in this sphere should be supported the premier is convinced.
“Today control over bureaucracy by civil society is especially important, as well as new initiative and new honest people in power,” Putin stressed. “We should not be afraid of such activities but, on the contrary, support them by all means.”
Infrastructure and housing as primary targets
Putin also said that road construction in Russian Federation must double in the next 10 years. He said that the infrastructure development would act as leverage for the development of all businesses.
“This is important for all citizens of our country,” Putin said.
Putin also suggested some radical measures to solve some social issues, especially such urgent problems as housing.“I consider it reasonable to suggest that the future State Duma and the future government decide on the question to distribute free land that is now in federal property for co-operative development for all workers of the budget sphere without exception,” Putin said. “This will be right and just,” he added.
Putin said that the regional governments should also take part in this plan and develop the infrastructure in new settlements on their own expense. He said that the volumes of constructions must roughly double by 2016 and the newly erect houses must be modern and comfortable.
Putin also promised that mortgage rates will be reduced to 6.5-7 per cent in the short term.“It is a market substance and I should talk about it prudently, but in the next few years we should reach the rate of 6.5-7 per cent rate on mortgages,” he said.
Millions of new jobs
In the next 20 years, 25 million jobs should be created, the PM stated.
“The country is alive when factories work, but they should operate on a new technological basis and in a brand new business environment. In industry and in the state-funded sector at least 25 million jobs will be created,” he said. “It is our common goal for the next 20 years.”
Medvedev steps aside for Putin
by Phantom Ace ( 15 Comments › )Filed under Headlines, Russia at September 24th, 2011 - 1:53 pm
Current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is stepping aside for former President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming 2012 Russian elections. They will switch positions as Medvdev will head up the Party’s list as Prime Minister.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday 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.
Ending months of uncertainty over which of the men would run, Putin swiftly accepted Medvedev’s proposal to run for president in carefully-choreographed speeches at the ruling party annual congress that dismayed liberals.
In an apparent consolation prize for the man who will go down in history as post-Soviet Russia’s only one term president, Putin said Medvedev should become his prime minister in 2012 and head the party list in upcoming legislative polls.
Putin was calling the shots anyway, so this is just a formality.
