What will his successor - Medvedev, Sergey Ivanov, Yakunin do? Whether the successor will succeed without losing the rate and stock of historical time in getting to work quickly? Its hardly possible. Putin spent years for consolidation of authority, for escalating of political weight on international scene and inside the country, for, at last, elementary training and getting of experience of management of the country. Where does the confidence from that in a case with the successor all will be differently. In any case a change of authority in 2008 will inevitably retard realization of so necessary strategy of modernization up to which the present president, probably, has almost ripened. Foreign policy mistakes will be for certain made. Even because of the fact that the successor, deprived of Putin's "weight", will need to be ratified on international scene.