Russia’s Leaders Announce Their Summer Vacation Plans

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 28 – Where to take a summer vacation or even whether to take one at all is invariably a political question for a country’s top leaders, all the more so when that country is suffering through an economic crisis and many of their citizens have been forced to curtail or cancel their plans for time away.

            Komsomolskaya Pravda has usefully provided a checklist of the vacation plans of Russia’s top leaders (kp.ru/daily/26709/3734139/).  They are listed below:

·         President Vladimir Putin has no plans for downtime given his full schedule, his press spokesman says.

·         Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will be making “many working visits to the regions,” his office says, but hasn’t announced his vacation plans. 

·         Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin says that he has no plans for taking any time off. 

·         Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko says she will travel to St. Petersburg and to Crimea.

·         Just Russia Party head Sergey Mironov says for him Europe and the US are closed and so he plans to do some extreme tourism in the northernmost portions of the Russian Far East.

·         KPRF head Gennady Zyuganov says he plans to spend time in his “small motherland,” Oryol Oblast.

·         LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovsky plans a staycation at home, although he says he may make short trips to nearby locations.

·         Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov says he is taking his family to visit relatives in Greece.

·         Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya plans to go to Yalta in Crimea.

·         Duma deputy Iosif Kobzon plans to return to his native Transbaikal.

·         Senator Frants Klintsevich says he will visit his five grandchildren at his dacha.