Paul Goble
Staunton, August 22 – Sergey Shoygu, currently defense minister, will replace former prime minister and now deputy Security Council chief Dmitry Medvedev as head of United Russia, according to Maksim Shevchenko, a commentator who leads the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice.
Medvedev’s day is over and he will really retire, the analyst says, while Shoygu will provide new energy to the party at a time when its standing has been fading and put himself in position to become prime minister or even the successor of Vladimir Putin as president (ura.news/news/1052500719).
Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute for Contemporary Government Development, agrees with Shevchenko’s analysis. He says that “trust in the defense minister exceeds trust” in Medvedev and that confidence in United Russia and its leadership must be restored in this complicated political time.
The Institute head suggests that with the arrival of Shoygu, United Russia will be “reformed” and become associated with issues of the strategic development of the state, something absolutely consistent with the subjects of Shoygu’s recent speeches about major policy departures.
If Shoygu replaces Medvedev, that will not only help United Russia in the upcoming elections and beyond, Solonnikov says; but it will help form “a positive image of the State Duma,” an institution which has also recently suffered in that regard.
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