Did Medvedev get punk’d?

NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images

A funny thing happened on the way home from the G-8 summit. Somebody seems to have changed Russia’s position on U.N. sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Last Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev signed on to a statement expressing “grave concern” about the situation in Zimbabwe. But on Friday, Russia vetoed a proposed U.N. sanctions resolution, citing the need to protect the principle of sovereignty.

What happened? The charitable explanation, proferred by the AP’s Steve Gutterman, is that Medveded never intended to sign on to sanctions, but merely “met the West halfway.” By Wednesday, he was already suggesting that Moscow wouldn’t sign on to sanctions, but did not say so directly.

Why couldn’t he be explicit? Perhaps it’s because he needed to consult with the man who is still his boss: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Zalmay Khalilizad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that Russia’s apparent reversal “raises questions about its reliability as a G-8 partner.” What he left unsaid is that it also raises new questions about whether Dmitry Medvedev is really the man to speak with if you want to get anything done in Moscow.