BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua)-Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao published an article entitled "Putin Lays a Policy for Successors" on February 17, saying that there was an airspace dispute between Russia and Japan, and Putin refuted Japan’s high-profile accusation that Russian military aircraft invaded Japan’s airspace, which made Russia-Japan relations tense. So far, Russia has no intention of apologizing for this matter, and Putin himself denied it, indicating that after nearly 20 years of rest and recuperation, Russia will take the lead in setting off a round of war against the West.
Excerpts from the article are as follows:
In the 1960s and 1970s, the former Soviet Union was a global power that could compete with the United States, and even the space competition was stronger than that of the United States. However, after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Russia fell into economic recession. In order to save the economy, it obviously gave up the policy of competing with the United States to develop the national economy. After Putin came to power, the economy finally improved. Now that Putin is about to leave office, he has made a strongly worded anti-Western speech with the Japanese military aircraft incident, which shows that Russia feels that it has the strength to stand on the front line against western countries again. Although this is not surprising, there are many comments. The biggest focus is that this move is Putin’s practice of laying a strong Russian image for his successor.
Russia’s general election will be held in a little more than half a month. Dmitry Medvedev, whom Putin preferred earlier, is still the most popular presidential candidate, which shows that Putin still has great power in controlling Russia’s political situation, that is to say, the domestic and foreign policies formulated by Putin will continue to be implemented. Whether Dmitry Medvedev can control Russia after taking office naturally depends on how Putin exerts his strength behind it. Because of this, Putin’s recent speech at the meeting of the State Council and his tough stance toward Japan are considered to have a cause, and the content of his speech has been evaluated as the spirit of the post-Putin era has been continued. In his speech, Putin pointed out that NATO had provoked a new global military competition, and questioned that Russia had completely withdrawn from bases in Cuba and Vietnam, but the United States had new military bases in Romania and Bulgaria, and planned to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, indicating that the military hostility of western countries towards Russia had never changed. To be fair, Putin hit the point.
From the perspective of a leader of a big country, it is understandable that Putin is worried and hopes that his influence will continue. However, from the perspective of western countries, it is considered as an act of clinging to the stack and power, which makes Putin’s actions on the eve of leaving office particularly concerned, and who to choose as his successor is also particularly watched. Only when Dmitry Medvedev takes office smoothly can Putin put down his heart and stone. Based on this, he does not want to think too much about western countries’ accusations of his anointing behavior.
In a word, all the reform and development actions of Putin’s reign can only be said to clear the way for Russia to rebuild its image as a great power, and achieve the goal of re-election. Because Putin is unwilling to amend the constitution, he can only work hard to train successors who are loyal to his own political ideas. Whether Dmitry Medvedev can continue Putin’s policy is naturally regarded by Putin as a major event to clear the way to rebuild Russia’s image as a great power. Because of this, on the eve of the handover of power, Putin needs to use the meeting of the State Council and the military conflict with Japan.
There are three tests on Putin’s succession: First, under the sustained development of Russian economy, it is very important to regain the previous leading role as a counterbalance to western countries. It is not only because of Russia’s vast territory and abundant resources, but also because of its strong scientific and technological foundation. Therefore, Putin particularly pointed out that Russia must establish an "innovative army" to respond to the threat of NATO. Second, Dmitry Medvedev’s first task after taking office is to maintain domestic stability, including political and economic stability. Political stability can make his administration smoother, while economic stability can continue all the developments that have been on track, thus promoting Russia’s strength to become stronger. Third, since Russia is located across Eurasia, it is very important to develop good relations with neighboring countries. As soon as Putin saw this advantage, he constantly strengthened his contacts with neighboring countries in Europe and Asia during his term of office, which made Russia spend a long time in exerting influence on neighboring countries. Dmitry Medvedev took over Putin’s power. If he suddenly loses Putin’s support, he will not only face great pressure in countering hostile forces, but also bear great storms in consolidating relations with neighboring countries. Because Putin knows this better than others, he used the meeting of the State Council and the friction with Japan as a platform, and public opinion first supported Dmitry Medvedev.
Looking at Russia at present, if Dmitry Medvedev can do well in three aspects after taking office, he will be in power more smoothly. First, strengthening economic cooperation with neighboring countries, especially China, can not reverse the economic development in the Far East. Developing Siberia is equivalent to creating new wealth for Russia, and the continuous development of Sino-Russian border trade is the basis for promoting the modernization of Siberia. Second, to change Russia’s image as an energy exporter, while selling energy resources, we must take the means of consolidating good bilateral relations, and we can’t just deal with energy resources from the perspective of pure economic interests, so that energy resources are wasted. Third, on the basis of Putin’s success in rectifying the Russian economy, we will further strengthen state management and increase investment in education, infrastructure, science and technology. By strengthening the communication between these investments and other countries in the world, Russia will return to a strong position in the world and regain the right to speak on world affairs.
Russia’s political and economic strength is obviously in the European part, which makes its science and technology have a great advantage with the help of European power, and it is also the biggest reason why the former Soviet Union can compete with the United States in the last century. At present, the EU is expanding its influence on Eastern Europe and wooing many former Soviet Union allies. On the surface, it is not good for Russia. However, everything has its disadvantages and advantages. The rise of the EU is directed at the United States. This pattern shares part of Russia’s power to counter the United States, so that Russia can gather counter-forces. Therefore, it is not difficult for Dmitry Medvedev to improve his domestic affairs as soon as possible and use his powerful energy resources as an expansion force to rush out of the world and succeed. This may be exactly what he did. (Yu Jianfeng)
Editor: Wang Xu
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