Reasonably Satisfied.

Ah, hell with it, I am pretty satisfied with a new Russian Government of Mishustin (in Russian).  It is a good government. 

1. Remember Andrei Belousov? Now he is in government as First Deputy PM. Do I need to go deeper into importance of this man? Excellent.

2. As was expected, brilliant Yuri Borisov retained his post as Vice-Premier responsible for Military-Industrial Complex. Top, absolute top. 

3. Mishustin brought with him a number of his own people from his remarkably effective Federal Tax Service. Very good decision, excellent specialists in uncovering all kinds of fraud and squeezing fat cats into proper sharing of benefits or ending up behind bars. Good news.  

4. Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, retained his post. Those who followed Russia's industrial development will understand why. Very good news.

5. Siluanov, he is liberal but he is a very good financial specialist and I totally expected him back to this post.  

Ah, yes, Shoigu and Lavrov retained their posts. Anybody expected a different outcome? I did exercise for a second a possibility of Masha Zakharova being offered this job ahead of Ryabkov, purely out of stunning femininity and brains factor, but she is still young and she will need to get through Russia's Rep. at the United Nations before being offered this post. Hey, few more years of Lavrov's memes and trolling, who would decline that? It is a very good government, overwhelming majority of it are what can be defined as Gosudarstvenniki (Statehoodniks) and people with excellent pedigrees in their respective fields. It is a COMPETENT government. It is a government which is charged with unprecedented plan of Russia's development, not seen since Stalin's Industrialization, and hysterical screams and depressed whining (in Russian) from both "left" and "liberal" wings because they understand that if this plan succeeds, they will be permanently removed to the most remote fringes of Russia's political life, where they truly belong, only confirm the correctness of choice. Will this plan succeed? I guess we'll see, but preparation for these events started few years back, when it became obvious that integration with the West is not only not-possible but highly undesirable. Russia did reasonably well (nah, I am being facetious--she did incredible job) against the background of actual and economic warfare the combined West unleashed against her. Keeping this in mind, one can totally conceive that new objectives will be attained, because Russia can either exist as a superpower or not at all. The social demand for this change of country's course has formed in Russia long time ago, now it is being satisfied.  

BTW, useless Oreshkin got kicked out. Good riddance. He may serve yet as Putin's errand boy, he may do well at this position;))   

About (Russian) Government. Fast Thoughts.

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The Russian government will consist exclusively of highly-qualified professionals, Acting Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He stressed that the objectives for the future Cabinet set by the president had been enshrined in the Executive Order on Russia’s National Goals and Strategic Objectives to 2024 signed on Monday. When asked whether the new Cabinet, which is expected to consist of those deputy prime ministers who had previously held senior positions, will be able to fulfill these goals, Peskov noted that the government had not been formed yet. "You haven’t heard (the candidates for) the ministers, wait (until they are appointed)," he said.

It seems that there is a lot of panicky and gloomy mood about re-nomination of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's Prime Minister and speculation about new (old?) Cabinet configuration. For those who are in such a mood, read below:

Any Russian Government will do whatever Vladimir Putin and Russia's National Security Council tell it to do. 

Dmitry Medvedev is a technical Prime Minister, literally—a caretaker and he was such for a very long time now. He knows his bureaucracy better than anyone, despite the fact that he can sometimes be clumsy and underwhelming. But some preliminary info on the Vice PMs is not bad and appearance of, as an example, Yuri Borisov in such a position is a very good sign. Unlike Dmitry Rogozin, who is a journalist by the education, Borisov offers an immense command, scientific-engineering (Doctor of Sciences) and industry background. In the end, it was him, not Rogozin, who really ran Russia's Military-Industrial Complex and we all know what this complex can do. The same positive goes towards removal of Shuvalov and Dvorkovich from Cabinet. Now, this rumor about Kudrin—he is not going to be, if he appears at all, in any position of power to formulate any policy in government, not to mention nationally. Certainly not as a liaison for negotiation of "surrender" to the West as some suggested. People sometimes simply forget that in modern day Russia it is Putin and his immediate team who formulate policies. I see no signs of him "surrendering". Quite opposite, actually.

My main interest is who will become (if rumors are true) a new Defense Minister instead of Shoigu—that is a huge one. And, of course, one has to ask the question if Lavrov comes back. These questions are by far more important than some speculations on Kudrin. Let's face the cold hard fact—Russia is not building communism. For all nostalgia about those times, overwhelming majority of Russian people do not want a complete return of that system. Taking best form it—and there was a lot of good in it—absolutely! Deal with oligarchs and return stolen wealth? Sure! But the times of total state-control, and ownership, are gone and Russia's reproach with socialism this time around is already very different—it is a way of evolution towards real social state and it is inevitable, Russian culture and history considered. So, my suggestion—just calm down and simply observe actions, not words. In the end, there are many (in fact, very many) tangible successes in the last 4 years—hardly a sign of people not knowing what they are doing, especially with West waging a very real war against Russia. Just buckle up.