Thread: Special forces, sometime....anyone?

if you didnt make it yahoo, lets get a game goin tonight.....it was a LONG night for us....we were playin alotta Irish poker.....and that sums my evening up, lol

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/art...167520,00.html

President Vladimir Putin today dismissed Russia's government ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections and appointed a little-known ally Viktor Zubkov as the country's prime minister.

After months of speculation about a possible reshuffle, Mr Putin said he had accepted the resignation of the prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, and his government during a meeting in the Kremlin.

The Kremlin later announced that Mr Zubkov had been nominated as the new head of Russia's government - ahead of parliamentary elections on December 2 and a presidential poll in March 2008.

Today's surprise move failed to clarify who would take over from Mr Putin when he steps down in the spring. Mr Zubkov is a close friend and political ally of the president but is not regarded as a possible successor.

Most analysts believe that Sergei Ivanov - Russia's hawkish former defence minister - is still the president's most likely choice. Speculation earlier today had suggested that Mr Ivanov would be given the prime minister's job.

Mr Fradkov - who has led the government since 2004 - will carry on until Mr Zubkov's nomination is confirmed by the Duma, Russia's parliament. Most senior ministers were expected to keep their jobs, though the hated health minister, Mikhail Zurabov, was tipped for the chop.

'We all have to think together how to build a structure of power so that it better corresponds to the pre-election period and prepares the country for the period after the presidential election in March,' Mr Putin told Mr Fradkov during their meeting, shown on Russian television.

Today's events suggested that Mr Putin was determined to install trusted allies in positions of influence before his departure from power next year.

Mr Zubkov, 65, worked with Mr Putin in 1992 as his deputy in the office of St Petersburg's mayor. He later led Edinstvo (Unity), a pro-Kremlin party, before taking a job in the finance ministry.

When Mr Putin celebrated his birthday in 2000 he invited 21 people, including Mr Zubkov, to his party at a restaurant in the town of Pavlosk, although political observers say the two men are close but not intimate.

'It's interesting. It shows that Putin is selecting people from his own narrow circle to head key government institutions,' Vyacheslav Nikonin, a pro-Kremlin analyst, told Russia Today TV.

Asked whether Mr Zubkov might take over from Mr Putin, he said: 'I don't think so.'

"Mr Putin wants to create in his administration a system of checks and balances between government institutions," he added.

Up until today, even senior Kremlin officials had been unsure of Mr Putin's precise succession strategy. Mr Ivanov - currently Russia's first deputy prime minister - and Dmitry Medvedev - also first deputy prime minister - are both regarded as possible successors.

The newspaper Vedomosti today suggested that Mr Ivanov's position had "strengthened" over the summer. The paper pointed out that Mr Ivanov had appeared in public with Mr Putin on numerous occasions recently, including during a trip to Kamchatka, and had sat next to him during last month's Moscow air show.

Mr Putin, however, is known for his capacity to surprise. He has also defied predictions that the transfer of power would mirror the handover in August 1999, when the then-president, Boris Yeltsin, named the unknown Mr Putin as prime minister.

Several months later, Mr Putin became acting president, winning the presidential elections in 2000.

Today's developments will be watched keenly by both the EU and Britain. They come at a time when relations between Russia and the west are at their worst for at least a decade.

Most analysts believe that whoever takes over from Mr Putin next year is unlikely to adopt a more conciliatory approach to London or Washington.

This, coupled with the bomb test, the long range bomber flights towards Western nations, disputes over Iran and the long held mistrust between the West and Russia is not giving my confidence that Putin has the EU and NATO in his heart and prayers.

:nope:

What's odd but this exactly?

"Russia is not giving my confidence that Putin has the EU and NATO in his heart and prayers."

Should he? the country he resides in is not in either.

Considering his past as the head of the KGB and all the shit he's been pulling, added to the last century of Russian history, dissolving a federal government nearly entirely is cause for concern to his neighbors, which happen to be members of the EU and NATO.

Call me stupid but I would bet anything that when it is time for him to step down that he does not. I see him trying to be Stalin and rebuild the USSR Communist state. I guess he likes people waiting in lines to buy bread...

I doubt it, biteme.

He won't be that open about it, I don't think.

He'll step down and just... influence things.

I'd actually have to concur with Biteme. Putin has a rather large power base, he is installing friends in the government (friends who wouldn't object to Putin going back on his plan on stepping down), and is highly popular with the Russian people. Frankly, if I were in such a position, I wouldn't step down. I'd use it to my advantage and assert control. Odds are no one will resist.