I assume that it is Vladislav Surkov who must be in charge of constantly coming up with new public media stunts for Vladimir Putin to build upon his cult of personality. The judo demonstrations, the skiing, the topless fishing trip, the Siberian tiger hunt, the sudden excellence in the arts ... all building upon one another in degrees of absurdity.Two questions: is the latest Jacques Cousteau-like stunt, which has Putin submarine diving in Lake Baikal looking for gas crystals, a sign that they've lost the plot? Or more importantly, does the return of ridiculous media performances mean that Putin is already on the campaign trail? Thankfully for the motherland, the minisub appears to be blessed with better maintainence than was the Kursk, but still ... one wonders where they will go from here.
From Reuters:
Before locking down the hatches on the Mir-2 submersible, Putin was shown a specimen which bubbled under water.
"You can touch it. There are very few people who have held hydrates in their hand, even fewer Baikal hydrates," Robert Nigmatullin, head of the Oceanology Institute, told the prime minister. "You can set it on fire as well, it will burn."
"Let's not set it on fire today," Putin, 56, said with a smile before getting into the submersible, which then submerged below the waves of the world's oldest lake.
There's some misunderstandings .
VV Putin DID COLLECT a piece of rock at a bottom of 1300 m with a manipulator but it wasn't methane clathrate .
Instead on relying on western agencies , the authors should watch at the filming of the " state controlled " news agency VESTI relayed by RTR Planeta .......
He SPOKE of the issue of the methane clathrates which shows that he has knowledge of the next decades energy issues .
How many prime ministers and presidents in the world even know that methane clathrates exist ?
The authors of this blogue , and the contributors [ i wanted to respond to Mr Memtsov that the Yamal drillings are built on " permaforst " and not on " ice " ) , doesn't find anything senseless to write .
Concerning MIR submarines , they were designed in SU but built by the Finnish Maritime Cluster , and they have few equivalents in the world .
You should ask Mr Ariel Cohen ( Heritage ) , Scott Borgerson ( CFR ) , Rob Huebert ( Calgary ) how they are disapointed that Russia owns such high-end tech and the Us and Canada doesn't !
The word " stunt " is also pejorative as collecting rocks in the bottom of the Baikal is a scientifical achievement .
What's up ?
Mr Putin is only in contact with the REAL world and enjoys the oppurtunities many people are dreaming of : A trip in jet fighter , an oddissey at the bottom of the Baikal , fishing in the wild , .......
In France we have an " hyper-president " , Russia has its " Hyper - Premier " .
An the second is holding the line better than the first who had a " deficency " one week ago jogging under the hammer of a high-noon sun .
Mr Putin certainly enjoys trips in jet fighters and odisseys to the Baikal. But if you call this "being in contact with the real world", you forget Mr Putin is a Prime Minister. He is supposed to be in contact with the world as a Prime Minister, not as a jet fighter and Baikal tourist.
What he does in his spare time is of course his own business. But that he makes this a part of a propaganda stunt... That is not professional. Mr Sarkozy, by the way, has done a few similar things (among which, à la française, his affair with his now wife Carla Bruni). I think you'd probably criticize him for that.
The point is that when leaders start wanting you to admire their submirine skills, it usually is because they don't want you to pay attention to what they are doing as leaders.
As for the US not owning such technology... you've certainly not looked very hard, now have you? :-)
To Ashepe .
Concerning the subs , you should make the remark to Mr Cohen , Borgerson and Huebert . They seem very worried of their existence . I'm speaking of deep water exploration subs . Canada has developped two remote subs for continental shelf mapping but they don't match the " MIR ".
In every country , and even in Brazil ;0) , there are these " propaganda stunts " . When Mr " Lula " Da Silva puts his hands in crude oil like Mr Vargas did , it has a significance : Beyhond the gesture , it means he cares of the issue of oil production in Brazil and the destiny of PETROBRAS .
The same thing when Mr Collor set fire to a " maconha " plantation .[ I remember well this because he nearly set fire on himself !LOL ]
At the Baikal , Mr Putin spoke of the issues of methane clathrates , exploration ships and environnement and this IS the REAL WORLD .
Of course there is a " propaganda" because to impress and convince you need in our times to make " shocking images " .
It needs for leaders to make a trip in a tank or a fighter to show that they take seriously care of the defense issues and of the military , they must put their hands in oil , they must set fire to narcotic crops , they must go in Grozny or Baghdad with " the boys " ........
And on the last point , as far as i know , Mr Putin DID took courageous stance as its chopper was caught under fire .
Concerning Mr Sarkozy , agricultors eg make him grieviance that he " don't put his hands at the ass of the cows " and " don't taste each countryside productions " as his predecessor Mr Chirac used to do each year at the Paris agricultural fair .
On the other side Mr Putin drove a combine harvester when Barack Obama was in Russia , which is for many Russians certainly a more important issue than the presidential visit .............
The visit to Irkutsk region touched many issues
http://premier.gov.ru/eng/visits/ru/120/ which would have gone unnoticed without what the author calls "ridiculous media performances"
Of course those who are running their personal battle against P.M. Putin and Russia, are highlighting only their distorted view of facts, as always
Mir submersibles are not really Russian made. They were built in the 80's in Tampere, Finland.
DanielB, your comparison of Putin to Brazil's ex-president Fernando Collor is actually quite good -- both had a taste for propaganda stunts and demagogic behavior. Fernando Collor ended up impeached, which he richly deserved for his participation in corruption schemes; Putin, however, despite probably having even more connections to corruption than Collor, probably will not.
I'm not questioning Putin's private life; for all I know, he may even really be courageous. The point is: this is not what he is supposed to do. Maybe he also studies Chinese in his spare time, but this kind of thing doesn't make a person a good or bad leader. It's all just PR.
Russia doesn't have the technology you mention; it just buys it, like a mobile phone or a plasma TV. And so do the US... despite what the gentlemen you mentioned think, their website mentions sales to America. So, there you have it: again Russia does something... when it has foreign technology. I'll bet they wish the Kursk (and the Bulava) had also been made in Finland.
Balqis, what other important issues? Putin's page makes the Baikal thing look like a tourist trip (with a speech about how important it is to preserve nature in the middle).
I do think Putin's stunts are indeed "ridiculous media performances". If you can see any other use to them, please let me know -- I would indeed be very curious about that.
To Ashepe
I guess you should document yourself on the issue of the MIR submarines ( and other issues )
They were designed , even the process of steel hardening , by Malakit design bureau but built in Finland as it was common at that time ( It's common in the shipbuilding industries )
The Finnish maritime cluster was a useful mean for SU to have shipyards with up to date facilities ,a good manpower and technical skills whereas Severodinsk and Zvedochka were only used to built submarines for the navy .
The same process was and is still used for icebreakers : River icebreakers are built in Finland and High Seas nuclear powered icebreakers are built in Russia or sometims the hull is built in Finland and the reactor in Russia .
As you write it , the FMC is under close scutinity because in the next years Arctic capable shipbuilding will be a strategic sector and the Us rely greatly on Scandinavian shipbuilders and German Azipods (c) .
The " Kursk " disaster is related to a Shkval class torpedo booster who lacked onboard a propulsive element after a shock during a handling and exploded .