He’s about to reemerge on the international stage, which for him is a familiar place. He knows world leaders and they know him. He can keep the attention of the most powerful among them and explain Russia’s position. He will be listened to because, bar none, he is the most popular politician in the country.
Putin has promised that the government would trim its budget deficit in 2014 to 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. At the same time, he has promised to keep government spending at between 20 percent and 21 percent of GDP from 2012 to 2014. He’s also predicted 57 percent revenue growth from the oil and gas industry.
To make this happen, Putin said Russia will have to embrace strict fiscal discipline. There’s only one man who has the trust of the people and the powers-that-be in Russia to crack the whip. And that’s Putin.
Would-be presidents commonly make big promises; most of the time they fail to deliver. President Obama, for example, won the White House because he vowed to change the direction of the U.S. and to make it a better place. So far, he’s fallen short.
But Putin isn’t Obama. Not only is he tested (he served as president from 1999-2008), but he led Russia through its most consequential period of modernization. Maybe even more importantly, the Russian people – 68 percent of whom approve of Putin - have confidence in him and trust that he – more than anyone else, can put Russia on the right path.
Putin announced in September he would seek to return to the presidency. Even his soon-to-be predecessor and protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, acknowledged that Putin is the right man for the job, calling him "the most authoritative politician at the moment in our country."
Russians want a leader who takes responsibility. They want a leader who isn’t afraid to make the difficult choices.
Outsiders misread and misunderstand Putin, but the people who know him, the people he has led before, know him well. They, like me, understand he is exactly the type of leader Russia needs right now.
