WHAT DOES PUTIN MEAN?

From 1 October the question of Putin's successor has become irrelevant.

The Russian President officially announced he will be running for parliament, already during his presidency.

Although so far wishing to stay “an independent candidate” (not a party member), Putin has agreed to top the candidates list of the Russian party in power, The United Russia, nicknamed “Bears”. Naturally, in the eyes of most Russians (and the observers abroad), Putin will be associated with the party he has patronized, and his official membership will be a technical, insignificant issue.

Equally technical (read: insignificant) will be the person titled The President of the Russian Federation after Putin resigns from this position. Moreover, it is even likely that Putin will resign early, after his “Bears” party will be proclaimed the winners of the so-called parliamentary “elections”, scheduled for 2 December. The necessary minimum of votes to enter the parliament having been raised to a percentage unattainable for any party out of favor with the regime and the turn-out minimum requirements abolished all together (the elections will now be considered as legal even if virtually no one shows up), it is an all-win game for the “Bears”, especially considering that the true opposition parties are unable to address the public other than on the internet (still a luxury in provincial Russia) and a meager handful of hard-to-get newspapers.

Once Putin resigns (and appoints the current tamed and submissive Prime Minister Zubkov as his successor) he will in fact commence a role much less reserved in terms of time than his current one. In becoming the head of the majority faction in parliament and most probably the new Russian Prime Minister he will redefine the competences delegated to a Prime Minister as such (read: change the constitution turning Russia into a parliamentary state). Only, contrary to the Western parliamentary states, Russia will not have a legitimately elected parliament, but rather a Soviet (‘Soviet-type council') of The Party. In the Soviet Union , the country's leader was officially called The General Secretary of the Higher Soviet and could rule forever, as his party retained the majority forever.

And that is exactly what Putin means to become.

At the rate that the Russian economy is being nationalized (repossessed by the state corporations) today, Russia will not wait long to follow and also become a smaller Soviet Union again. A Soviet Union that, too, will break up in yet smaller pieces once the economy hits another crisis.

At least it's honest this time. It's midnight and the masks go off. Eight New Year's Eves later.