Putin underlines his transition from servant into master

Russia's president has underlined his transition from servant into master by dumping the two men who put him in the Kremlin. His parliamentary allies voted to lift the absolute immunity from prosecution that had been enjoyed by the former president, Boris Yeltsin. And now Mr Putin's former mentor, the former Kremlin property manager, Pavel Borodin, has been told nothing will be done to save him from answering charges of multi-million pound theft in Swiss courts. The two cases are separate, but together they seal a year in which Mr Putin, installed to protect Mr Yeltsin and his followers, has in fact routed most of them, one by one, from positions of power.
Mr Yeltsin picked Mr Putin as his prime minister in 1999, and his replacement as president in January of last year, in return for a decree by the new president giving him immunity from the growing number of corruption investigations closing in on him. Now Mr Yeltsin will be looking over his shoulder after the Duma, led by Mr Putin's Unity Party, voted itself the power to strip him of this immunity if prosecutors decided to bring "serious charges" against him.

Mr Borodin -- the man who brought Mr Putin into the Kremlin as his deputy in the mid-1990s -- has been told the government will do nothing to save him from answering theft charges in Switzerland. Indicted on a Swiss Interpol warrant, he was arrested at a New York airport en route to President George Bush's inauguration.
Mr Borodin is accused of taking £ 18 mm in bribes in return for awarding two Swiss firms contracts to restore the Kremlin. Officially, Russia's government objects to the Swiss extradition case now winding through the US courts. Unofficially, the Kremlin seems almost relieved that a man who was also investigated by Russian prosecutors is out of the way. Mr Putin has maintained a studied silence on the issue.
Mr Borodin's fate appears to be sealed now that his job, as secretary of the largely ceremonial Union of Russia and Belarus, has been given to someone else. In its haste, Russia has not only decided not to wait for his trial, but did not even inform Belarus, which is supposed to make the appointment jointly with Moscow. The move completes a remarkable transition for Mr Putin who arrived on the government stage with almost no political experience.

One year ago, Mr Putin, who eventually rose to be head of the secret police, was installed as president by an ailing Mr Yeltsin in an attempt to find someone to beat the rising opposition parties. Mr Putin's war in Chechnya and tough-anti corruption moves have seen him do just that -- but now he has turned his guns on the so-called "Family" -- Mr Yeltsin's entourage of politicians and tycoons.
First to go were two media tycoons, Boris Berezovsky, a key "Family" member, and Vladimir Gusinsky, a former Yeltsin supporter. Both are now exiles being chased by the courts. Next were the country's 98 regional governors, installed as corrupt barons in return for their loyalty to Mr Yeltsin. Mr Putin kicked the governors out of the upper house of parliament and installed seven "super governors" to watch over them.
Then he turned on the mighty companies -- whose bosses were part of the "Family" and included the largest gas, oil, energy and car companies -- placing them under investigation for tax offences. Finally, key jobs have been given to Mr Putin's former KGB colleagues, most notably the leadership of the security council, the second most important job in the country, held by Sergei Ivanov. The FSB (formerly KGB) was given control of the Chechen war -- a humiliation for the army.
There are many who believe Mr Borodin was pressurised into flying to New York, under threat of a more far-reaching prosecution by the Russian courts if he stayed. "I take my hat off to Putin, he is brilliant," said Natalia Babasyan, a Moscow political analyst. "Borodin was very much part of the 'Family', but Putin decided to get rid of him. Putin couldn't be seen to do it himself. So he is making it happen with the hands of the Americans."

Neither Mr Borodin nor Mr Yeltsin are yet convicted of anything. But Mr Borodin will be lucky to escape jail once extradited to Switzerland, while Mr Yeltsin will be at the mercy of the state prosecutor. The two may also be linked to the possible prosecution of Mr Yeltsin's daughters, Tatyana Dyachenko and Yelena Okulova, accused by the Swiss of taking bribes from the same Swiss companies involved with Mr Borodin.