- Tweeter
republish
It was during his traditional televised address on December 31, 1999 that Boris Yeltsin announced his decision to step down from the presidency of Russia. That was twenty years ago. That day, he puts into orbit a man who has not left power since: Vladimir Putin.
From our correspondent in Moscow ,
One would be tempted to believe that Vladimir Putin came to power, a little by surprise, on December 31, 1999. We remember the images of the televised New Year's speech of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. A tired, exhausted president, one might be tempted to say, by the crazy decade of the 1990s which saw the Soviet Union collapse, turn its back on communism and plunge into savage capitalism.
An announcement that takes everyone by surprise
A country where business was then settled with firearms or car bombs. On this last day of 1999, Boris Yeltsin will therefore announce to an astonished country that he is leaving the presidency of Russia with immediate effect, leaving the country under the leadership of a man in whom he has complete confidence until the presidential election which will be organized in March 2000. This man? It's a certain Vladimir Putin.
He was then very little known to the general public, even though he had already held the office of Prime Minister since August. A time when the Prime Ministers succeeded one another without really impressing public opinion. This position, he acquired it after having spent several years in the anteroom of power without exercising activities likely to bring him notoriety. Entered politics at the town hall of Saint Petersburg in the 1990s, a city where he became deputy mayor before giving in to the Moscow sirens in 1996 to take up the post of deputy director of affairs for the presidency. In 1997, he was appointed deputy chief of staff of the presidency by Boris Yeltsin, before becoming head of the FSB, the federal security service of the Russian Federation, the former KGB, in 1998.
A chameleon
During all these years, Vladimir Putin knew how to federate around him a network of supporters who when the time came did not hesitate to propel him to the front of the stage to test him as head of government and see what he was able. Andrey Kolesnikov, a political scientist at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, believes that at the time " all the different clans saw in him a hope for a better future. The liberals saw a liberal who was going to pursue a good economic policy, the special services saw one of their own, a man who was ready to fight for Chechnya, and the masses, a man who had an iron fist [note: as opposed to Boris Yeltsin, considered the toy of the oligarchs] , in short, he managed to satisfy everyone and pass the test successfully . ”
Consequently, Boris Yeltsin had the rare pearl to leave the capacity against guarantees of safety once retirement, as well for his political family as for his. It is then that gradually, Vladimir Putin, follower of the vertical of power, will place key positions of relatives in whom he has full confidence, supervise the local governors and the oligarchs to restore the power of a then deficient state.
Restoring the power of the country
His first two terms, 2000-2004 then 2004-2008 will be marked by the spectacular recovery of the Russian economy and a significant improvement in the standard of living of the population. Achievements which still earn him the recognition of a majority of Russians even if Andrey Kolesnikov explains that Vladimir Putin is not much to do with it. " It is said to have supported the economy, but it is easy to make it grow when the price of oil is high or to operate the market economy in a framework which was set up by Egor Gaïdar [ editor's note: Minister of Finance, Minister of the Economy and Prime Minister in 1991 and 1994] ”, deplores the political scientist.
The art of staying in power
How then did Vladimir Putin stay in power for almost twenty years without leaving his mark on the Russian economy? This is due to the talent he developed to remain at the head of the state, even during the ring road that he carried out as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012, Dmitri Medvedev holding the presidential office . For Andrey Kolesnikov, this is explained by two factors: " He managed to create a balance between the clans who coexist peacefully by the mere fact that he stands in the middle and because he made sure that he there is no possible alternative . "
Twenty after this famous evening of December 31, 1999, the situation has changed. The growth of the economy is anemic for a country like Russia, the population has trouble projecting into the future and the paradox, for Andrey Kolesnikov, " is that nobody expects Vladimir Putin to change something seriously or it immediately improves the situation . "
Traditionally, Russians have a habit of listening to their president's address every December 31. After this one tonight, there will be four left for Vladimir Putin without anyone knowing if he will succeed in surprising the population to the same extent as his predecessor, just twenty years ago.