Russia’s new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov.

“Lenin skazal nado delitsya,” was a favorite saying that mothers would tell young children during Soviet times. “Lenin said we must divide amongst one another,” was what the phrase meant–the use of the verb delitsya–attempting to inculcate youth with the values of sharing and a collective mentality. This verb has definite negative connotations when used in reference to the political arena in Russia. It usually occurs in conversations related to the theories about which personalities in the cabal around President Vladimir Putinchet will receive what positions–how the political power will be divvyed up after March 2008 when the former secret policeman is supposed to leave office. The main question as to who would be his successor became a bit clearer today when Putin dissolved the entire government. According to the Russian constitution, the president has two weeks to name a new PM and form a new government. Paradoxically, this move now takes place more than a month before–rather than after–the Russian parliamentary elections, proving once again that the election results and the nation’s legislative branch are both irrelevant in determining national policy. Putin was widely expected to name his long-time KGB associate, First Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov, as the next prime minister, which would have officially positioned Ivanov as the man who will take over as president next year. Ivanov’s accession had been widely anticipated. His only other real competitor has been Dmitri Medvedev–who is also the only other first deputy prime minister and a former head of the Presidential Administration–but Ivanov’s appearances at public events, on television, and at Putin’s side have eclipsed that of his supposed rival. One of the recent high-profile public appearances of Ivanov and Putin took place at last month’s Moscow Air Show (MAKS) during the opening of the exposition. The two were side-by-side in the sweltering heat on one of the hottest days of the year in Moscow as Ivanov gave the president a guided tour of the exhibit–stopping at the stands of some of the more important aerospace and defense enterprises. None of which is a major surprise. Ivanov has made his stewardship of the defense industrial sector the theme of many of his televised, staged public events. All the while he has tried to convey to the Russian public that an upsurge in the activity of the defense sector–more sales abroad, more new weapons, more funding for military procurement–is the locomotive of technology that will pull Russia out ahead of the rest of the world and into a space-age future.