Russia’s Medvedev takes power

Russia’s Medvedev takes power

By Neil Buckley in Moscow

Published: May 7 2008 10:50 | Last updated: May 7 2008 11:59

Medvedev inauguration

Russia’s new president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday held out the prospect of a thaw after the democratic restrictions of the Putin era, pledging to develop civil and economic freedoms during a stately Kremlin inauguration ceremony.

But Mr Medvedev takes power amid continuing questions over whether he or Vladimir Putin, the former president who will now become prime minister, will really run the country, and how Russia’s new dual power structure will work.

Video interview
Dmitry Medvedev

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s new president, speaks to Lionel Barber , the FT’s editor

The 42-year-old Mr Medvedev placed his right hand on the constitution and recited the 33-word presidential oath before 2,400 guests in the gilded St Andrew’s Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace. He is the youngest Russian head of state since the last tsar, Nicholas II.

“I consider my most important task to be the further development of civil and economic freedoms, the creation of new opportunities, as broad as possible for the self-realisation of citizens – citizens who are free and responsible both for their personal success, and for the flourishing of the whole country,” he said in his first speech as president.

“In the last eight years we have laid a powerful foundation for long-term development, for decades of free and stable development,” Mr Medvedev continued. “And we must use this unique chance to the full, so that Russia becomes one of the best countries in the world – for the comfortable, confident and secure life of our people.”

Mr Medvedev repeated commitments made during his campaign to modernise Russia’s economy, renew its crumbling infrastructure and establish the rule of law.

“I will pay special attention to the fundamental role of the law, on which our state, and civil society, is based. We are obliged to achieve true respect for the law, to overcome the legal nihilism which seriously hinders our contemporary development,” he said.

While his predecessor, Mr Putin, is credited with steering Russia’s oil-fuelled economic recovery after the chaotic transition to a market economy in the 1990s, the outgoing president established a closely managed democracy and clamped down on political opposition and press freedoms.

Critics also say Mr Putin undermined his own early commitment to building a “dictatorship of the law” through what was widely seen as a politically-motivated legal assault on Yukos, once Russia’s biggest oil company.

Speaking just before handing power to Mr Medvedev, Mr Putin said he had “made a commitment to work openly and honestly, to serve the people and the state faithfully. And I did not violate my promise.”

The ceremony was shown live on Russia’s two main national TV channels, with sweeping aerial shots from helicopters and crane-mounted cameras of the Kremlin and the Moscow skyline – now boasting modern skyscrapers that did not exist when Mr Putin took power.

Mr Putin is expected on Thursday to be confirmed by the Russian parliament as prime minister, and will also become chairman of the dominant political party, United Russia.

Analysts expect Mr Putin to remain Russia’s most powerful figure initially, though say Mr Medvedev may well use the powers vested in him by Russia’s highly presidential constitution to assert himself over time.

Under the constitution, the president is commander-in-chief, responsible for foreign policy and security issues, and for setting the general direction of policies. The prime minister and government are responsible for implementing policy, especially in the economic field.

While respecting a pledge not to alter the constitution to shift more powers to the premier’s role, Mr Putin has strengthened his future position by ensuring governors of Russia’s 85 regions will report to him, not to the Kremlin.