Political participation - Leaving the future to others

Next weekend Russia will hold a presidential election that will be little more than a charade.

After the votes are counted, prime minister Vladimir Putin will return to the president’s office, resuming a role he had to vacate in May, 2008 because he had served two four-year terms. As prime minister, he amended legislation extending the presidential term from four to six years. This offers the prospect that he might serve as president until 2024 making him the longest-serving Moscow leader since Stalin.

Putin was replaced as president by the willing puppet Dmitry Medvedev, who, having come to the end of his usefulness, may retire to one of the Black Sea dachas so beloved in different times — but not so very different — by Soviet politburo members. No matter how splendid it is, it will not surpass “The Palace” a property which, it is alleged, Putin had built for himself with government funds. In 2009, the budget for the complex had passed €1bn. Why Putin might resort to needlessly misappropriating public funds is difficult to understand as he has, according to Kremlin insiders, amassed a fortune estimated at $40bn (€29.8bn) since he left St Petersburg, where he was a minor KGB bureaucrat, in 1996.