Putin Moves Confidants to the Kremlin on Astini News
MOSCOW — With the unveiling of his Kremlin cabinet on Tuesday, President Vladimir V. Putin made it clear that power would be concentrated in his hands for the next six years, and gave no quarter to opposition demands to bring new voices into the highest levels of government.
Yekaterina Shtukina/RIA Novosti, via Reuters
President Vladimir V. Putin, right, presided over a meeting of Russia's new cabinet of ministers in Moscow on Monday.
Mr. Putin's presidential administration — an organ whose influence reaches into every corner of the state — will be dominated by the confidants who have surrounded him for a decade, including fellow veterans of the intelligence and security services.
A handful of especially unpopular ministers were removed from their government posts on Monday, suggesting that the authorities were heeding recent calls to punish officials for corruption and inefficiency. But Mr. Putin hates to fire people, even if they have become liabilities, and he announced Tuesday that most of the ousted ministers would receive new posts as presidential aides or advisers in the Kremlin.
One who did not receive a Kremlin post was Igor I. Sechin, the former deputy prime minister, who has advocated greater state control over the energy sector. Mr. Sechin was appointed to lead the country's largest oil company, Rosneft. Shares in Rosneft rose on the news, which puts an influential political figure in a position to lobby for the oil sector. It hopes to cut taxes and attract Western partners to explore fields in rugged frontier territory like the Arctic.
Under a plan for the oil industry through 2020, Russia intends to hold output at about 10 million barrels a day, tied with Saudi Arabia for now but gradually sliding into second place.
Former Finance Minister Aleksei L. Kudrin, a Putin ally who left the government last year, said the new configuration suggested that Mr. Putin had moved on from his "tandem" with Dmitri A. Medvedev and was returning to the highly centralized style of his first two presidential terms.
"Putin in the past, in particular, took all the key questions on himself," Mr. Kudrin told Kommersant-FM. "I think that now he is going to take all key questions on himself. Perhaps a little bit less; I think he'll give the government some defined space in some decisions, but all the same he'll be making the key decisions."
As if to underscore the hard-line trend, Mr. Putin's party, United Russia, moved Tuesday to increase fines sharply for citizens participating in illegal protest actions to one million rubles, or $32,000, from 5,000 rubles, or $160 — more than three times the average salary in Russia. The bill narrowly passed on the first of three readings, with 236 deputies supporting and 207 in opposition. Under pressure, including from Mr. Medvedev, the bill's proponents are planning to reduce the maximum fines for citizens to 300,000 rubles, or about $9,600.
The penalty would apply to a range of street actions that have become common in Moscow in recent months, like the ebullient "test stroll" led by a dozen prominent writers two weeks ago. If it passes in second and third readings, it could be in force before a large march planned for June 12.
The initiative has met with staunch resistance from the legislature's minority parties, two of which threatened a walkout during the vote. On Tuesday, deputies in the faction A Just Russia wore the white ribbons that have become a symbol of the protest movement, and which Mr. Putin derided on national television as resembling limp condoms. Several dozen protesters picketed Parliament on Tuesday, some carrying signs that read, "A ban on demonstrations is the path to revolution."
