KGB still rules in Russia

In order to perpetuate himself in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin hit on the next best thing to a clone: First Deputy Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev, whom he named as his successor Monday. The two men went to the same university, worked in the same office when they entered politics in St. Petersburg, served in the Kremlin together and Mr. Medvedev ran Mr. Putin's electoral campaign for the presidency in 2000. They have been side by side ever since and Kremlin insiders say that President Putin treats the younger man as if he were his adopted son.

President Putin indicated that he was anointing a man who will be an extension of himself when he said, as reported by the BBC, "I have known him for more than 17 years, I have worked with him very closely all these years, and I fully and completely support this candidacy." The merging of the two men became complete Tuesday when Mr. Medvedev returned the compliment and endorsed Mr. Putin to be prime minister when his second term as president ends in three months and, under the constitution, cannot seek re-election.

Such blatant scorn for constitutional limits on power is a signal that Russia is in danger of returning to Soviet-style government. The landslide victory of President Putin's United Russia party in the recent elections has given his supporters such a huge majority in parliament that the powers of the office of prime minister could easily be enlarged to overshadow the authority of the presidency.

In his booster speech, Mr. Medvedev appeared to suggest that he would be a figurehead in a government headed by Mr. Putin as an all-powerful prime minister. He credited President Putin with saving the economy from collapsing and preventing a civil war. "Therefore, I think that is principally important for our country that we keep in the most important post in government — the position of chairman of the Russian government — Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," he said.

Those words warn that Russia will continue to be ruled in an authoritarian style by Mr. Putin. A remark by John McCain is worth repeating. He recalled that President Bush said when he met President Putin for the first time, he looked into his soul and was reassured. In contrast, Sen. McCain said, "I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes and I saw three things — a K and a G and a B."

If there was any likelihood that Mr. Medvedev would be his own man, it would be reassuring that the future president of Russia is one of the few Putin acolytes who was not a KGB man. But in his remarks nominating Mr. Putin for "the most important post in the government" Mr. Medvedev spoke in the harsh tones that have come to characterize the Putin Kremlin. He said, "The world's attitudes toward Russia have been changed. They don't lecture us like schoolchildren. They respect us and they reckon with us. Russia has been returned to its overpowering position in the world community... Our military defense and security have been increased."

President Bush has never revealed whether he has reviewed his original positive reading of President's Putin's soul. But he did indicate yesterday that he doesn't think much of President Putin's plan to become prime minister. "Just let me say this: It is not something I would want to do," Mr. Bush told ABC News. "I want to serve my time as president of the country and move on and let somebody else take the helm, and that is exactly what is going to happen here."

That's the difference between a democracy and the regime that Vladimir Putin is imposing on Russia. The hopes for a democratic future that were inspired when Boris Yeltsin climbed on a tank in 1991 to resist a Stalinist coup are fading as KGB-style rule returns.