I think it's safe to say that Putin is the real back seat driver in the RF (Russian Federation), though technically Medvedev is the current president.
Yeltsin was a total disaster for the RF and it is Putin that has restored the RF to being a major player on the world scene.
Some questions:
1. How long can Putin continue to be the "back seat driver", the real head, the top dawg, the head honcho in the RF?
2. In the long run, who or what type of leader can replace him, as we have all seen how much damage someone like Yeltsin can do?
By long term I mean in the next 5-10 years. Putin won't be around for ever and the RF will need someone just as good or better than him.
3. From an intellectual/historical perspective, General Lebed was once seen as a potential great leader for the RF. How would he have been if he actually became the leader?
My uninformed opinion (which doesn't carry that much weight in comparison to the Russian posters for example) is that Lebed would never have been effective as Putin. Putin was a fox, an ex-KGB man who knew politics was a game of chess, a game of cards, but also knew the importance of being strong, something which he was.
Lebed was a general, and generals often do not make good political leaders, as politics is often about subtletly, foresight and deftness.
Intelligent & meaningful comments appreciated.
Al-Qaeda fanatics, racist white nationalists, skinheads, Kemalists, please stay out.
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TURKEY CRACKING DOWN ON KEMALISTS.
Police and Sayin Yasar Bukuanit head of the Turkish army which has authorized the arrest of ERGENOKON terrorists.
Video of Turkish police operations against suspected Kemalist terrorists.
considering the consensus is that someone offed Lebed (possibly because he was being a little bit loose lipped about missing nukes)it’s safe to say Putin will continue to run the country for some time to come. Even if/when he steps down as PM hes still going to be a young man as world leaders go and I assume he will have some mechanism in place to ensure any successor follows his line
