Compared with the National Duma MP's campaign, the presidential campaign of the Russian Federation was more peaceful. There was no scandal in the fight for the presidential throne, nor was it used for dirty power, but this did not mean that the competition was not fierce enough or tense enough.

In the election, leaders of the parties, second, third or even fifth, can enter the State Duma and become members of its parliament. However, there is only one presidential throne, and the president has more and more benefits and power than the entire Duma has.

In recent years, presidential elections have naturally been the main topic of Russian political predictions, social research and various speculation activities. This is determined by the special role of the new Russian presidential power system, in Russia, his president has more broad power than the US president or the French president.

In Russia, when the tradition, civil society and mature party system have not yet been formed, the president can and should become a guarantee of stability, security and order. Therefore, giving the president the necessary power and leverage is not a changeable behavior in the Yeltsin era or a mistake by the constitutional makers, but a necessary one.

It is this situation that determines the issue of running for president that has become the most realistic topic in the Russian social and political system.

Putin has many opponents, including Victor Chernomerkin, Alexander Lebed, Boris Nemtsov, Yuri Luzhkov, Yevgeny Primakov, etc. These people are Russian political stars at the time, and they are more dazzling than Putin at any moment.

Vladimir Putin, who had just become the director of the Federal Security Agency in July 1998, was almost unknown eight months before the Russian presidential election. Even Putin himself had never had any extravagant hopes for any position at that time, and even when Yeltsin appointed Putin as prime minister, it did not attract special attention from the society and the media.

But the situation soon became clear. When Putin had become a real competitor to the highest position of power in the country, many admirers immediately appeared around him, and of course, many people who had malicious intentions towards him.

Since October 1999, Putin's work has no longer won applause. Although Putin's policy has received clear support from the majority of the people, many newspapers, magazines, and some popular TV stations have opposed Putin.

Politicians and businessmen behind Russian mass media are scared of Putin, who unexpectedly became the new prime minister and his rapidly rising approval rating.

As the election approached, this noisy and poorly effective propaganda campaign increased its power. In the weeks and months before the election, there were a variety of reports about Putin, and many media often published various rumors, rumors and vicious comments, or ignored important facts and statements. Some newspapers and magazines even made fake news directly.

For example, "Putin is a ** element", "Putin does nothing now and does not want to change anything about Yeltsin's political and economic policies in the future", "Putin does not want to deal with the oligarchs", "Putin will not re-examine the results of predatory privatization", there are many similar statements.

What the Russian media has been chasing is Putin's attitude towards those called oligarchs. It is precisely because of the large amount of money provided by the oligarchs and the active support of the mass media they control that Yeltsin won the presidential election.

Similarly, this has given the most ambitious oligarchs very strong not only in the economic field, but also in the Russian regime institutions. But this has no benefit to the country. Among all the demands for the regime, the most voice is to eliminate corruption, bribery and crimes, and to eliminate the oligarchs who are indiscriminately exerting their power.

Therefore, the topic of Putin and the oligarchs is very popular.

On the one hand, Putin had to listen to many suggestions from those who had close cooperative relations with big capitalists, who believed that it would be difficult for Putin to manage the state without the support of big capitalists; on the other hand, Putin had to listen to other expectations that the activities of the oligarchs should be clearly condemned, and even judicial investigations of the most hated individual oligarchs should be restored.

It is not only the thinkers of the Russian Communist Party that demand that Putin firmly and thoroughly draw a line with the oligarchs. As a national leader, Putin's entire future will depend on whether he has the ability to solve the oligarch problem.

In fact, all the claims that oligarchs have supreme power and have extremely negative impacts on the country are nothing more than smoke released, and their purpose is to divert the attention of the people from the real problems. The peak of the oligarchs' true success is very short, and their glory is over.

What we see now is no longer a battle between oligarchs, but a normal political contest between different power alliances. On some occasions, the influence of Russian oligarchs has been obviously exaggerated, and on other occasions, it is obviously reduced again.

Russia's big capitalists already exist, among which there are leaders of Russia's largest financial industrial group, who strive to safeguard Russia's national interests in the competition of large Western companies; however, large financial speculators can also be found here without any effort. These people rely on exploiting Russia's weak economic life and transferring the wealth they illegally gained to faraway overseas.

Here, people can also see managers of large state-owned enterprises and companies, that is, state officials who can be fired or appointed. But there are also a group of people who are trying hard to expand their political influence rather than using their own wealth to develop their own financial and industrial companies, with the use of the most pedantic and outdated methods; there are also some business owners who rely on their own efforts to build new industrial production departments and new factories, thus ensuring employment opportunities and better income for thousands of people; but there are also some people who use the Russian mass media they control for themselves, rather than for Russian society and the country.

Putin is firm on this issue, stressing on various occasions that he does not allow a new round of distribution of property in Russia, while announcing in clear and clear language that the state will be managed by the president and government, not by the oligarchs, who firmly and explicitly refuses to use any sponsorship of all oligarchs on all occasions.

During the campaign, Putin's campaign headquarters used very little funds, and there was no need to use the money of big businessmen. When answering questions about oligarchs, Putin emphasized more than once the principle of keeping oligarchs away from power.

But it is precisely this principle that makes those who are very close to power feel very scared.

Therefore, at an important moment when the election year has entered, Putin's various opposition forces have begun to connect with each other, colluding with Western anti-Russian forces, as well as those oligarchs who were hunted by Putin's government and fleeing overseas, gathering their respective forces, and attempting to start attacking the Putin government from now on from all aspects such as politics and economy.

"The Duma election is more than half a year away, and the presidential election is one year later. They are eager to try now. Are they a little too anxious?" Luo Lin asked curiously in response to this question.

"No rush at all." Fan Wubing shook his head.

In fact, it is not possible to influence public opinion and create obstacles to the Putin government in a short while. Many layouts will take several months or more to complete. Therefore, many forces have begun to attack, creating obstacles to Putin from all aspects, in order to create greater obstacles and troubles to Putin when the election is approaching, affecting his re-election and even directly expel him from the Russian supreme authority.

"The economic foundation determines the superstructure, and this can also apply here." Fan Wubing explained to Luo Lin. "Once Putin's economic policy has a major deviation and leads to major mistakes in the Russian economy, it will be difficult for him to be re-elected as president. Just like Bush, although he won the Iraq battlefield, he lost the election because the Americans are very practical. Bush is invincible on the battlefield, but his economic performance is mediocre or below the level, and he will naturally be abandoned by them."

"Oh——" Luo Lin responded, "So what about the trade frictions between China and Russia today are actually creating obstacles to Putin's election?"

"That's natural. A qualified Russian president, either, is a president who can quickly recover and improve the Russian economy. Now under the leadership of Putin's government, Russia's political situation has stabilized. If there is a certain economic achievement, his re-election will be almost irreversible." Fan Wubing said, "It is precisely because Putin's opponents have seen this, so they are now concentrating on layout and starting to create chaos from all aspects."

A discerning person can naturally see this. As one of Russia's most important partners, China's position in Russia's economic development is becoming increasingly important. Moreover, as the only force that is not a Western country, it is naturally the most advantageous attack weapon for Putin's opponents. Destroying China-Russia economic and trade relations is obviously the most effective means to attack Putin.

In this Sino-Russia economic and trade conflict, Putin and the Chinese were actually victims. Therefore, when Fan Wubing came to Moscow in person to secretly meet Putin, the two sides immediately reached an important cooperation agreement to ensure that their respective interests are not violated.

"However, what kind of cooperation projects have you reached this time?" Luo Lin asked Fan Wubing.
Chapter completed!