Faced with Gebliev's sentiment, Wang Ye did not know what to say.
He could hardly tell Gebliev that he was right, that these old-timers really should make way for young people like him...
Wouldn't that make him seem far too impatient?
Besides, Wang Ye was not actually in a hurry. He could tell what Gebliev meant, and there might even have been an element of testing him.
He merely wanted to find out whether Wang Ye had any further major moves planned—such as driving Gryzlov from office and replacing him himself.
Perhaps the Kremlin was already deeply dissatisfied with Gryzlov. After all, during today's vote, the Silovik Group's lawmakers had actually chosen to support Luzhkov. The Kremlin must have been both shocked and displeased.
As party leader and speaker, Gryzlov had so little control over the faction's lawmakers. That was plainly occupying a post without doing anything!
But if they truly forced Gryzlov out now and made Wang Ye speaker, the Kremlin would probably be reluctant as well.
Personal relationships were one thing, but publicly speaking, Gryzlov was still one of their own. Wang Ye belonged to another faction and had not even openly declared his support for the Kremlin during the election...
So the Kremlin also hoped that Gryzlov could smoothly serve out this term as Duma speaker, retire with dignity, and then hand the position over to Wang Ye in the next term. They hoped Wang Ye would not get impatient...
It was no wonder the Kremlin had such concerns. Judging by what had happened in the hall today, if Wang Ye had taken the opportunity to press the issue, he really might have been able to drive Gryzlov from the speaker's seat and replace him!
That was why Gebliev had so eagerly called Wang Ye for a