MOSCOW -- When President Vladimir Putin announced his choice for the nation's No. 2 job, the Russian media seized on the mysterious, one-year gap in Mikhail Fradkov's resume that seemed to hint at a secret KGB background.
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Putin, who is expected to easily win a second term in the March 14 election, has packed his government with "men with epaulettes." But whereas previously these men tended to focus on national security, now they hold decision-making jobs in practically every sector -- from the economy to the courts to media oversight, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who conducted a groundbreaking study of Russia's ruling elite.
They serve as regional envoys, Cabinet members, deputy ministers, presidential advisers and lawmakers. Some even retain their status as "active reserve officers," reporting to both their former spy agency bosses and their new department heads.
"With such big growth ... one has to ask why ... and what this means," Kryshtanovskaya said.
Critics say the rise of ex-service and military people known as "siloviki," who value loyalty and discipline and tolerate little dissent, has left the nation in the grip of authoritarianism, turning back the clock to Soviet times. They point to the crackdown on Russia's independent media, the weakening of parliament and opposition parties, strong nationalistic rhetoric and calls for the renationalization of natural resources as examples of siloviki influence.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-putins-power-men,0,2973765.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlinescomment : another chapter in cold war II
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