‘Putin power’

Want to anoint yourself dictator for life without breaking a single law? The autocratic soon-to-be-former president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, is about to show us all how. He’s even announced exactly how he plans to do it. And because the Russian people are showing every willingness to let Putin have his every way, there’s virtually nothing the rest of the world can do to stop him. Instead, Washington should focus on U.S. national interests, which lie in enlisting Putin to check Iran’s nuclear aspirations and preventing the emergence of a new Sino-Soviet bloc.

Putin’s plans are crude enough to make a Mussolini blush. Under the Russian Constitution, Putin cannot run for a third consecutive term. And so as he approaches the end of his eight years in office, he has handpicked his successor, just as former President Boris N. Yeltsin did before him. (Actually, the mercurial Yeltsin elevated then dismissed numerous successors, and Putin was the last one standing when Yeltsin’s term ran out.) But Putin’s advisors have rightly warned him that merely arranging for the election of his successor, Prime Minister Viktor A. Zubkov, as president does not ensure Putin’s continued political hegemony, let alone guarantee immunity from future prosecution or persecution.

So instead of depending on Zubkov’s goodwill, Putin intends to succeed him. Oh, and by the way, while he’s at it, he may as well revise the constitution, which creates a very strong presidential system, to make the prime minister dominant instead. What’s most depressing about this announcement is the absence of demonstrators in the streets. Most Russians prefer Putin’s strong-man reign to the poverty and chaos of the Yeltsin years, judging by Putin’s 80% approval rating. Of course, it will be hard to gauge the true effect of his self-succession scenario. Given the slew of murders and jailings of those who’ve crossed him, who still dares speak out against him?

If Russians give Putin’s party a mandate at the polls next year, as is widely predicted, U.S. criticism will likely only confirm the widely held view that the West preferred the weak, impoverished Russia to Putin’s oil-flush, assertive nation. American citizens and human rights groups will rightly denounce this pseudo-democracy as a farce, and they should lend what moral support they can to the knee-capped opposition -- but it would be wiser if such criticism didn’t come from the mouth of the U.S. president. Instead, official Washington ought to dust off realpolitik and cooperate with Russia where it still can -- just as it works with such other unpleasant but unavoidable players as Saudi Arabia and China. Putin has his own reasons to fear Islamist terror and the arms race that would be provoked by a nuclear Iran. It’s Washington’s job to ensure that Putin does not have powerful economic, ideological or strategic incentives to join Beijing in an anti-American alliance that could trigger a second Cold War.