A woman in a bright dress: Why leaving Natalia Timakova is symbolic
Dmitry Kurkin
This Monday, September 17, the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree about the resignation of his seemingly permanent spokesperson Natalia Timakova. After nineteen years spent in power, Timakova goes to work at Vnesheconombank. And this is the very rare case when it is possible to talk about the resignation of not only government officials, but also women. Let Timakova herself believe that power at such a level becomes asexual.
Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the release of Natalia Timakova from the post of press secretary in connection with the transfer to another job. The prime minister handed her thanks to the Russian government for many years of work. Oleg Osipov has been appointed the new press secretary of the head of government pic.twitter.com/lPW7TeMFSH
- Government of Russia (@Pravitelstvo_RF) September 17, 2018
“Some colleagues are so addicted that at some point they begin to know their faces almost better than the manager. Of course, there are situations where a spokesman must take a certain public blow. But he should not have his own political ambitions , broadly broadcast a personal point of view, "explained Natalia Timakova four years ago in an interview. The task of the press secretary is to speak in a second voice without shouting out to the chief, therefore there are more women among the press secretaries, it’s easier for them in the public consciousness to go into the shadows. In this assessment of its political role, of course, there is a share of coquetry.
And the point is not only that in the ranking of the most influential women of the country, Timakova at one time occupied the third place. For a woman in the Russian politics, Timakova, with all the formal attributes — after all, she worked only as the “mouthpiece” of the top authorities — she retained her position rather submissive. Especially in comparison with Russian women parliamentarians or women ministers, whose positions, although they imply power, in practice often represent the position of a farmer. “It’s always a shame to realize that the backbone of the civil service is women, but the higher the position, the smaller they are,” Timakova said in a farewell interview.
For a woman in the Russian politics, Timakova, with all the formal attributes — she only worked as the “mouthpiece” of the top authorities — she took a position that was quite insubordinate
Timakova, who for ten years spoke on behalf of the president and the government, will be remembered primarily as the face of the “Medvedev thaw”. The one in which the president is interested not only in military equipment, but also iPhones. In which a liberal TV channel may appear, and the head of state talks with his journalists. In which these same journalists are not threatened on behalf of the authorities. And if the attack on a political reporter did happen, the president (at the suggestion of the press secretary) considers this event to be an emergency, and not a payment for “eavesdropping and peeping.” Where communication with journalists and the country is generally possible not only in the format of a long and gnashing of predictable “straight line”, but also in meetings where they ask uncomfortable questions and the names of “forbidden” politicians sound. In which the first person of a country can be not only a steel superman, but also a person to whom the human is not alien. The main PR successes and failures of Timakova (for example, the video that finally convinced everyone that Dmitry Medvedev is more like a badminton player than the leader of a new, freer country) are also connected with attempts to humanize a little bit of Russian power.
Opinions about the extent to which Timakova was an accomplice of the “thaw” differ greatly and are even overgrown with myths with a tinge of incriminating evidence. The press secretary of Medvedev was attributed almost to the preparation of a “liberal conspiracy” to nominate Medvedev for a second presidential term or “financing from his own funds” of that same liberal channel (several years after Bolotnaya Aleksey Navalny recounted rooms in the Jurmala press secretary’s house Timakova called his investigation about Medvedev "the propaganda attacks of the opposition and the convicted person").
Actually, without exaggerating and not belittling the political weight of the press secretary of President Medvedev, one thing can be said - she re-invented her position in the new conditions as much as time and situation allowed, adding the functions of a personal adviser, on the one hand, and an image maker - other. Timakova herself was part of this "modernization" image of power. The woman - the press secretary - it is progressive, and in a European way, and just like a human being. In addition, it was a woman in a bright dress (a dark suit on the day of leaving looked even symbolic) - no power-dressing, and so clearly, whose words matter here.
The woman - the press secretary - it is progressive, and in a European way, and just like a human being. In addition, it was a woman in a bright dress - no power-dressing
It is still not completely clear why Timakova was called to be Putin’s interim press secretary at the end of 1999. There are plenty of versions, and one is more colorful than the other - up to the assumption that Timakova was chosen because of her height (Putin could turn to her from the top down not only figuratively). But the most popular comes down to the fact that the young woman had to soften the image of the former KGB officer, who at that time still had words like "drench in the toilet". But it is clear why this venture failed, and Putin’s press secretaries were only men later: it’s unrealistic to imagine a woman, and even reasonably independent, in Putin’s entourage - this simply does not fit into his picture of the world.
“I didn’t create the image of a liberal press secretary with a liberal president. I was a completely liberal press secretary,” Timakova thought. Arguing now about the reasons for her departure, she talks about professional burnout and that she was ready to leave the post of press secretary for a long time. This is hardly cunning, but it’s also obvious that not only women, but simply “people” in the Kremlin now look at a far greater anomaly than five, and even more so eight years ago. Then Timakova, who openly supported the director Kirill Serebrennikov in the “The Seventh Studio” case, “speaking on the side of the journalists in the Duma proceedings, entered into a clinch with Nikita Mikhalkov in the Film Fund, would not have been such an alien element in power. According to rumors, at some point they also planned to make a woman a minister of culture. But left everything as it is.
Cover: Dmitry Astakhov / TASS