(2005-01-04) — Russian President Vladimir Putin today announced that he removed Kremlin critic Andrei Illiaronov from his post as senior advisor to “protect freedom of speech and strengthen democracy.”

In recent days, Mr. Illiaronov has sharply criticized Mr. Putin for…
- doing away with elections for governors throughout Russia and giving the president the power to appoint them,
- interfering in Ukrainian presidential elections by backing the eventual loser,
- nationalizing Yukos oil company, a successful private enterprise,
- propping up failing businesses with funds from successful ones and
- cracking down on Russian news media.

However, Mr. Putin said these moves, and the firing of Mr. Illiaronov, are all “essential to maintain a vibrant democracy.”

“While a cynic or traitor may say that we’re falling back into the old Soviet command-and-control patterns,” said Mr. Putin, the former head of KGB, “a true patriot will rejoice at my progressive decisions to focus debate, ease the burden of choosing leaders, accurately educate the proletariat and re-engineer overly-profitable enterprises.”

A Kremlin spokesman later denied that Mr. Putin had used the word “proletariat,” and Russian news reports immediately dropped the reference.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “America has nothing to fear from Mr. Putin’s recent democratic innovations. We continue to support him, and President Bush continues to refer to the Russian president by the affectionate nickname Pootie-Poot.”

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