Medvedev's 'big mistake'
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
27.09.2011 07:52
Polish MEP and member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Marek Siwiec says that Dimitri Medvedev's decision to recommend Vladimir Putin as the next president of Russia is the “biggest mistake of his career”.
Фота: EPA ANATOLY MALTSEV
photo - EPA/Anatoly Matsev
"It's a pity, because [Russia] made a step forward thanks to the division of power, and now they have laid it all to waste with one move."
President Medvedev, head of state since 2008, announced the job-swop at a party rally Saturday, saying that Putin would return to the post of president he has already served two terms as and Medvedev would return to his post as prime minister.
The news has been received with some concern in Warsaw, which has had at times difficult relations with Putin over the last decade and more.
"This shows that the hopes for a far-reaching modernisation of Russia in terms of relations with Europe have been thwarted," says Poland Comes First MP Paweł Kowal.
Adam Szejnfeld, from Civic Platform – the party seeking reselection as head of the governing coalition in the upcoming elections on 9 October in Poland - told Polish Radio, however that the re-shuffle will not influence relations with Poland, as the former president is “familiar to us and therefore predictable”.
The announcement comes two and a half months ahead of the parliamentary elections in Russia and less than a year before the upcoming presidential ballot, in which Putin is hot favourite to gain a third term as head of state. (pg/ab)