Putin dismisses government, aiming at winning election

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Putin dismisses government, aiming at winning election

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Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Mikhail Kasyanov's government Tuesday and pledged to appoint a team to overhaul policy ahead of next month's presidential election which he clearly expects to win.

In a televised speech, Putin said he had made the decision under the Russian Constitution, but it has nothing to do with the performance of the just-dismissed government.

"This decision is not linked to any assessment of the activity of the former government, which I believe on the whole to be satisfactory. It was dictated by my desire to once again delineate my position on the issue of what development course the country will take after March 14, 2004," he said.

The decision, and its timing, took the world by surprise as under the constitution the government would have been required to submit its resignation anyway after the election.

Under the constitution, the presidential election will not be effective unless more than half of the voters have cast their votes.

But Putin's position in the election, with his rivals far behind him in opinion polls, is so clear that the election is regarded as oppressive and voters are not interested in the no-suspense poll.

Experts said Putin made the decision not only to win supportersbut also to woo voters who are still hesitating to go to the polling stations so that he can get a second term.

But his rivals denounced the move as a PR stunt.

Nikolai Kharitonov, a candidate of the once powerful Communist Party, said the president had staged a "public relations exercise"to ensure that disenchanted voters go to the polls. Kharitonov is forecast to get 3 percent of the vote, against 70 percent for Putin.

He said Putin's decision "is a public relations move designed to attract public attention to the president in the run-up to the presidential elections and to ensure a high turnout."

A "high turnout" might be just what Putin wanted to achieve.

But Putin's explanation for dismissing the government was widely accepted by both the ordinary people and analysts.

Under the post-Soviet constitution, the Russian president enjoys considerable powers, leaving the prime minister responsiblefor implementing the Kremlin's policy and overseeing the economy.

Putin has long expressed impatience with Kasyanov, who was associated with the former administration of Boris Yeltsin, for failing to produce quick reforms or sufficient economic growth.

Kasyanov was also publicly at odds with Putin on the economic policy, including issues related to taxes and mortgage schemes.

The dismissal of Kasyanov is widely expected to help Putin, whowas elected in March 2000, to score a landslide victory in the presidential elections on March 14.

Public opinion polls in recent years showed that Putin's support rate has stayed above 70 percent and the incumbent president boasts an 80-percent approval rating this year, far higher than any of his six challengers who have individually nevermustered more than 5 percent.

Russian stocks tumbled 3 percent to 5 percent on the news. The dollar climbed 5.5 kopecks on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. But analysts said those were just "emotional reactions" to Putin's sudden decision and did not mean that the stocks would be seriously affected.

Sergei Mironov, speaker of Russia's upper house of the parliament, welcomed Putin's decision.

"The president has assessed the work of the government led by Kasyanov as satisfactory. In this connection, the government's dismissal is a logical step and I support this decision," Mironov said.

As Putin has kept his leading role in almost all the opinion polls, his decision to dismiss the government would settle all the unsettled questions in his bid for the second term.

"One of the great strengths of the Putin regime is that it has been predictable. This, coming out ... without any preparation, will just strike people as an arbitrary act. He didn't need a demonstration of resolve and he didn't need to announce what his next four years' program was because he wasn't in any danger of losing the election. He wasn't under any pressure," Robert Skidelsky, director of Moscow School of Political Studies, said.

Other experts also believe that Kasyanov's departure would win more support for Putin.

"It's a symbolic move. Putin stood up and effectively said: I want to make it clear that all ties with Boris Yeltsin's family and its son, Kasyanov, have now been severed. Voters are only going to like that," said Igor Bunin, a political analyst in the Center for political Technology.

"If his rating stands at 80 percent now, it will jump to 85 percent after this announcement. It simply can't go higher than that, statistically speaking," he added.

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