Putin does not control Russia completely – political scientist

Talk about who will replace Vladimir Putin as president of Russia has been going on for a long time. Given the rumors about the dictator’s illness, these conversations have intensified – among others, Nikolai Patrushev and Sergei Kiriyenko are named as Putin’s replacements.

This was stated by political scientist Pavel Luzin in an interview with Natasha Vlashchenko on the Ukraine 24 YouTube channel.

Situation in Russia

According to the political scientist, talks about the successor of Vladimir Putin have been going on since the time of the ex-president of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.

“I am not inclined to exaggerate the degree of personification of the Russian system of power. After all, this is not Gaddafi, who really relied on his family, tribe, the balance of tribes, etc. This is not Syria before 2012, this is not Hussein’s Iraq, where there was also reliance on an understandable and a narrow circle of people and a personalistic regime. Putin decides something in the foreign policy sphere. For example, he decided the issue of war – with these generals, the FSO, probably the FSB, and not with all of the FSB, “he said.

Pavel Luzin noted that for more than two years Putin has completely isolated himself from the current administration:

“That is, when you refuse to manage, you push off:” Solve it without me, and if there are sharp conflicts, then resort to me – I will already resolve something “- this means that he does not fully control the system and does not govern. He is also a hostage of this system of power.”

The political scientist said that in fact the question of who will be the successor has been standing for a very long time – about 10 years:

“It is important for the elite to maintain a balance, and it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain it. In 2010, they were frightened by these “modernization” undertakings of Dmitry Medvedev, in 2011 they rushed to their feet to beg for a castling, which took place precisely because it became clear: if we carry out political and economic modernization in Russia, then someone will have to be “cut off” from power, and at the same time from wealth. And if this is done, there will be many dissatisfied.”

In his opinion, now in Russia the process is going on “in a natural way”, because “the amount of the pie is shrinking,” and the number of people who want to stay near it, to be in the share remains unchanged. Therefore, the question of a successor has been standing for the last 10 years.

“Here you still need to understand that there is a change of generations. Putin is the generation of the 50s – early 60s, Kiriyenko, by the way, too. 70s, and these guys are “hungry”, who are more than 40 – 50 years old – not all of them can find yachts, castles in Italy, Austria or London. That is, this is a completely different audience that has its own “skeletons in the closet,” but she already has her own opinion about the future of Russia. And they are not only in the central government, but also in the regional,” Luzin said.

Earlier, journalist Alexander Minkin said that in the new Russia there will be no successor to President Vladimir Putin. Talk about the first deputy head of the presidential administration of Russia Sergei Kiriyenko and other “pretenders”, in his opinion, is meaningless until the collapse of the current regime. Also, the famous psychologist Dmitry Popov revealed Putin’s main fear.