Is there anything that Putin doesn't do?

On New Year's Day we were treated to a report of Putin dressing down Boris Gromov, for failing to restore electricity to some villages in Moscow oblast by the deadline of 1800 on New Year's Eve. Gromov stammered that not everything depended on him, but Putin's short answer was that this is no excuse, and ordered Gromov to spend New Year's Eve (the most important family holiday in Russia) in one of the villages that has no electricity. Today (4 January) we saw Putin picking up the phone and talking to the captain of an ice-bound ship, checking that the crew had enough food and water.

Can you imagine Obama doing the same to one of his governors? Well, of course, in the USA, governors are chosen by the people, not by central government, so the governors don't report to the Federal Executive in the same way. But it takes a major disaster for the Commander-in-Chief to be so publicly involved. In Russia, it's taken for granted that Putin will be involved from the word go, as in the case of the stranded freighter. Of course, in stickier situations like the Kursk sinking, or Beslan, or even the Nord-Ost siege, senior management stay away until things are more clear. Of course, this skill of knowing when to be present or absent is basic for any politician in any organisation in the world. In fact the two core skills in any political organisation from a Parliament to a corporation are the ability to take credit for other people's successes, and to be able to blame others for one's own failure. But in Russia, it's not just politics.

If Obama were so directly involved, it would probably be seen as a sign of failure - he was unable to appoint competent deputies or to establish structures of power to ensure that things are dealt with. No, everything has to run through him, and be seen to run through him, and it's a sign of how weak he feels his power to be. If anyone else gets the credit for something, there is the fear that they will get the credit, and become a threat to him. Still, in the final analysis, it's mostly PR, designed to create the impression that the country can't function without Putin.