Architect of Putin's System of Politics Is Reassigned

Vladislav Surkov [L] and Putin

msnbc.com

MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Tuesday announced the reassignment of Vladislav Y. Surkov, the "gray cardinal" who has overseen Russia's domestic political scene for more than a decade. The reassignment, made in the midst of a new protest movement against Vladimir V. Putin, Russia's paramount leader, suggested that Mr. Putin is prepared to make changes in the tightly controlled system that emerged during his first and second presidential terms.

Mr. Surkov, the deputy head of the president's administration, is considered the architect of the system under Mr. Putin and his protégé and successor as president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, which Mr. Surkov christened "sovereign democracy." He will now oversee modernization and innovation as a deputy prime minister, but will take no role in domestic politics. Russia's political system has come under unprecedented pressure this month from protesters who complain that elections offer them no alternative to Mr. Putin's rigid model. Former finance minister Aleksei L. Kudrin, who this month presented himself as a potential leader for disgruntled liberals, said the move affecting Mr. Surkov suggests "political reforms are going to continue."

"I consider him one of the designers of the system," Mr. Kudrin said in an interview with Kommersant-FM. "Now, the system is being reconsidered. Other organizers are needed, with other views on the political system."

Mr. Surkov, an advertising prodigy who was brought into government toward the end of the Yeltsin era, has argued for years that centralizing power in the Kremlin was a matter of survival after the 1990s. He acknowledged last year that "centralization has reached the limits of its capacity," but attempts to cultivate new parties were often discontinued if they showed signs of slipping out of Kremlin control.

Asked by a journalist on Tuesday why he was leaving, Mr. Surkov responded: "Stabilization devours its young." He went on to say that he had requested a reassignment. Asked whether he would take a role in settling down the protests, Mr. Surkov said no.

"I am too odious for this brave new world," he said, in a short interview with the Interfax news service. He then summed up his achievements at the reporter's request.

"I was among the people who helped President Yeltsin realize a peaceful transfer of power," he said. "I was among those who helped President Putin stabilize the political system. I was among those who helped President Medvedev liberalize it." More >>