President-to-be (again) Putin tightens his grip

Despite the peaceful nature of a rare rally of left-wingers and liberals in Moscow's historic Pushkin Square at the weekend, protesting at the iron rule of Prime Minister (and former president, of course) Vladimir Putin, all signs are that he is flexing his muscles for an unprecedented bid to become president for a second time at the next poll in 2012.
 
More significant than the cries of "Down with Putin" and "Putin is Russia's disgrace" that rang out in the crisp autumn sunshine, was the approval by the tame state duma (parliament) 24 hours earlier of the second reading of a draconian bill that will set in train further crackdowns on public protests against the Kremlin.
 
The legislation (inevitably also favoured by Putin's close ally, Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded him as president in 2008) would ban individuals convicted of administrative offences from staging rallies for at least a year.
 
The wide-ranging list of such offences includes speeding, travelling on public transportation without a ticket and minor fire safety violations, as well as other crimes related specifically to elections and the organising of public gatherings such as that in Pushkin Square.
 
Conveniently ahead of parliamentary elections next year, the bill also allows the authorities to change rally venues over traffic safety concerns.

In a move designed to defuse international disapproval, the revised draft is claimed to be more lenient than the initial version passed in July, limiting the restrictions to individuals, rather than legal bodies, including political parties.
 
But any such window-dressing was overshadowed by the sensational sacking earlier this month of Yuri Luzhkhov, the iconic mayor of Moscow for the past 18 years and one of the last regional barons left in Russia after Putin's deft move in 2004 to scrap elections for regional mayors and governors.
 
Any chance that the capital would remain the last bastion outside Kremlin control ended with his summary replacement by Putin loyalist Sergei Sobyanin, his former chief of staff and an archetypal Kremlin apparatchik.
 
To those familiar with Russia's democratic decline over the past 10 years, with Kremlin control over the media re-established and the opposition marginalised, it came as no surprise that the move was exercised by Medvedev in deference to Putin's wishes.

As a member of the politburo of Putin's United Russia Party, Sobyanin will ensure it an overwhelming victory in next year's poll.
 
Although Putin has said only "I will think about it" when asked if he will run again in 2012, the way has been paved for him to hold power until 2024 by the extension of presidential terms from four to six years, with the sole stipulation that a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
 
Putin, now 58. has also this month taken unusual steps to secure his home front by making a rare joint public appearance with his former air hostess wife Lyudmila, 52, in a bid to reassure Russians that the marriage stands firm amid persistent rumours that they had secretly divorced to enable Putin to marry Olympic champion gymnast, Alina Kabayeva, born in the same year the Putins tied the knot.

Russia's first family clearly felt that a video message on the government website was necessary to impress the babushkas - and younger women who are a strong and vital element of Putin's support - that traditional values still apply and that, in the words of Putin's chief spokesman, the divorce rumours were "nonsense." ·