There was no some special news on the country’s political field last week, at least as far as its public part is concerned. The topic of crisis became more actively discussed on the official level, though previously state authorities had tried to avoid it (at least in relation to Russia). Dmitry Medvedev’s speech at a forum devoted to Day of Constitution practically did not contain any unexpected things. According to him, fundamental modernization of the Constitution is undesirable in the next few decades, since the current variant is expedient enough to reflect the fundamental basis of the system. However, it does not mean there will be no changes at all – the president made it clear that correction of secondary provisions of the document (the provisions concerning the terms in office of authorities seem to be such) could be implemented depending on changes in the current situation.
The past week confirmed the tendency of sharpening of staff struggle inside the government stirred up by functionaries’ impression that large-scale reshuffle had been postponed. Vladimir Putin kept on distancing himself from operative struggle against the crisis appointing authorized persons. First deputy PM Igor Shuvalov is now head of the anti-crisis commission in the executive branch and he may enter competition with Igor Sechin. At lower echelons struggle also continued. In particular, Kovalchuk brothers’ protégé Boris Boyarskov lost his post of head of the federal service for communications supervision. Agriculture minister Alexey Gordeyev, whose positions had weakened over the previous few months, successfully attempted to play back.