It’s necessary now to put both the word “former” and the word “president” in quotation marks when referring to Vladimir Putin. He stands accused of rigging his elections (both by purging the ballot form and stuffing the ballot box) and therefore can’t be considered a properly chosen “president,” and rather than leaving government after his term as “president” ended he chose to assume the position of prime minister, vastly expanding the powers of that office. Thus, he’s still ruling Russia, and by no means as a freely chosen president but rather as a conspiratorial dictator.

The New York Times reports that in announcing the appointment of the members of his new government, Putin “sat at the same place at a table that he used as president for these performances. Dmitri Medvedev, officially the president, sat in a chair that viewers have come to regard as for subordinates.” The ministers were all Putin’s former flunkies; Medvedev will not be allowed to bring in any new faces. As the Times states: “The announcements reinforced the image that Mr. Putin will retain a grip on power and the direction of policy in Russia.”

The Associated Press reports: “When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign important documents and decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power to Russia’s new president. When Putin left the Kremlin, he took the pen with him.”

The Wall Street Journal reports: “If, as is widely expected here, article 32 of the law on government is amended to transfer authority over the military and security services and the foreign ministry to the prime minister, Mr. Putin will have the authority to continue to rule Russia regardless of the president. Postcommunist Russia can thus be ruled in reality (as opposed to appearance) by someone not elected as president, even in flawed elections.”

Since being sworn in a week ago, Medvedev has spoken in public for a total of less than 20 minutes. Putin surrounded himself with cabinet ministers who are hard-line former KGB spies, taking them away from the presidential administration and leaving Medvedev “adrift” and powerless. The Telegraph reports that Dmitry Oreshkin, a Russian political analyst said: “The centre of power has been unquestionably transferred to the White House.”

Blogger Robert Amsterdam reports that even funnyman David Letterman understands the apocalyptic outrage taking place in Russia:

On the May 12th Late Show with David Letterman, they did a short funny bit replaying clips of all these different news anchors (and of course Hillary Clinton) caught mispronouncing Medvedev’s name. Then, right when the bit ended, Letterman looked into the camera and ad-libbed — “You know it doesn’t even matter because he’s just one of Putin’s cronies..., “while shaking his head in cynical disapproval. The surprising comment was greeted with silence from the crowd, while his hype man in the band Paul Shaffer quipped, “Is that you speaking here? Because you usually don’t go political...” And from there the show continued on without further comment.

Ouch. Way to go, Dave, that’s telling it like it is! We are getting more leadership on Russia from a stand-up comic than we are from our president, it seems.

Anyone who uses the term “former” or “president” in regard to Putin is betraying not only democracy but the meaning and purpose of human language itself.