Putin has many excellent and important assistants, who are they? Yesterday, he unveiled the list of "five tiger generals" who led the battle for the State Duma elections held in September this year, and two "old ministers" he particularly relied on: Defense Minister Shoigu and Foreign Minister Lavrov led the list, while the long-term deputy, Vice Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Medvedev, was defeated, surprisingly.
This is because the state duma election is of great significance to Putin's administration in the next 3 years, and even whether he will participate in the presidential election in 2024, and even he rarely personally selected the "five tiger generals" to represent the Russian ruling party United Russia party to compete in the national Duma election.
Last year, Russia passed a constitutional amendment, Putin's presidential term is zero, he can continue to serve two more presidents, as long as he decides to run for the presidency must be re-elected, until 2036.
Another change in the constitutional amendments adopted by Russia last year is to increase the power of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, which has greater binding power on the president, and in order to govern smoothly, the president must have the support of the State Duma, so in the new State Dumari, Putin must strengthen his presence, which is not difficult to understand why he attaches more importance to the State Duma elections held this year than ever.
Russian Satellite News Agency reported on June 18 that Putin signed a presidential decree on the same day, announcing that the next Russian State Duma election will be held on September 19, 2021. Compared with previous terms, the number of parties with the right to directly nominate candidates to the State Duma has increased from 13 to 16, the competition has become more intense, and the United Russia Party faces greater challenges - at least to maintain the parliamentary seats of the current State Duma, Putin is definitely hoping to expand the seats.
Based on this, on June 19, Putin not only attended the congress of the United Russia Party, but also delivered a keynote speech pointing out the main work direction of the largest party in the State Duma in the next few years, and also personally announced the list of "five tiger generals" who led the United Russia Party in the State Duma election: Defense Minister Shoigu, Foreign Minister Lavrov, Chief Physician of the 40th Hospital Protzenko, All-Russian People's Front Co-Chairman Shmeleva, and Children's Rights Commissioner Kuznetsova.
After unveiling the list of "five tiger generals," Putin said the list of the top five candidates for the United Russia Party to participate in the State Duma elections in September should be made up of heavyweight politicians and relative newcomers who can represent important areas of life.
There is no doubt that Shoigu and Lavrov are what Putin calls heavyweight politicians, while the other three are relative newcomers to important areas of life, combining old and new to form the strongest lineup of the United Russia Party to participate in the state Duma elections.
Surprisingly, Putin's long-term deputy, Medvedev, who was the first deputy prime minister of the Russian Federal Government, the third president of the Russian Federation, the prime minister of the Russian Federation government, and is currently the vice chairman of the Russian Federation Security Council and the chairman of the United Russia Party, was defeated in Putin's list of "five tiger generals".
Medvedev, Shoigu, lavrov are the right and left arms of Putin for a long time, the two ministers not only led the list of "five tiger generals", but also Putin praised these two "old ministers" at the conference after publishing the list, Medvedev was not only not mentioned, but also lost the list. What is the reason for this?
The Russian Satellite News Agency reported on June 19 that sources from the United Russia Party revealed that the party's chairman, Medvedev, will not appear on the party's election list and that he will lead the Duma election campaign as chairman.
Of course, this is not the real reason. Obviously, Putin personally deployed the United Russia Party to participate in the election of the State Duma, and Medvedev's defeat of Putin's "five tiger generals" should be related to Putin's power layout, and even running for president again in 2024.
Defense Minister Shoigu and Foreign Minister Lavrov led the United Russia Party in the State Duma elections, indicating that Putin intends to let these two particularly loyal and capable "old ministers" expand the party's achievements in the State Duma elections, strengthen the party's power in the State Duma, and provide the strongest support for Putin's administration in the next three years and the presidential campaign in 2024. It can be expected that after the end of the current term of office of Shoigu and Lavrov, they will not continue to serve in the government, but will lead the State Duma, if successfully elected.
The other three in the "Five Tiger Generals" are all younger, mesozoic of the United Russia Party, representing the future of the party, focusing on attracting votes from Russia's mesozoic generation, especially young people. The main supporters of the United Russia Party are older, and the young people in Russia are more supportive of the Russian opposition led by Navalny, which is very unfavorable to Putin's 2024-2036 administration, and he must send the younger United Russia party rookies to compete with the pro-Western opposition for the hearts and votes of young people.
In addition, there are two other reasons related to Medvedev himself. One is that Medvedev's reputation among Russians has declined particularly badly in recent years, and in the polls of the most popular Russian politicians in the past, Putin, Shoigu, and Lavrov are almost all in the top three, and he is at the bottom every time, if he is listed as a "five tiger generals", it will be difficult to achieve the goal of leading the United Russia Party to a great victory in the State Duma election.
Another aspect is that Medvedev and Putin have a huge difference in their positions on the United States, Medvedev is a liberal in Russian politics, pro-American in his bones, during his presidency from 2008 to 2012, Russia and the United States rebuilt a short honeymoon period, he got along very well with the then PRESIDENT of the United States, Obama, and Obama was very unhappy to see Putin.
Russia is in a tougher environment than ever, and a few days ago, Biden said the U.S.-Russia relationship was at an all-time low. EU leaders have repeatedly declared that the EU's relations with Russia are at their lowest point.
The relations between Russia and the United States and the European Union are both at an all-time low, and the only way to defend Russia's interests is to play tit-for-tat games with the United States and Europe, not to get close to the United States and Europe.
Of course, Medvedev will also be an important assistant to Putin, who is still the chairman of the ruling United Russia party.