Putin: Medvedev and I are just friends… seriously

As Clifford Levy of the New York Times reports, Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin got just a tiny bit defensive during a joint press conference with Silvio Berlusconi of Italy yesterday: 

During a visit to Italy, Mr. Putin mocked a question from an Italian reporter who wanted him to explain the secrets to success in a “political marriage.” Mr. Putin has led Russia jointly with Mr. Medvedev for the past two years, after term limits prevented Mr. Putin from running for a third consecutive term as president.

Mr. Putin said the question had been phrased “in a very literary way.”

“Mr. Medvedev and I are people of a traditional orientation,” Mr. Putin said. “I can tell you this with complete certainty. As for marital unions, you have exaggerated a bit. But we are friends, friends for many years, I have already said this. And the way that we have arranged our work today — it seems to me, we can be proud of this.”

I don’t know what he’s getting so worked up about. Of course they’re just BFFs. Who would ever suggest otherwise? 

On a more serious note, at a lunch in Washington yesterday, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov made the case that having two leaders of Russia is better than one: 

For Putin, it would be very easy to change the constitution because the whole nation is completely for him. To say, one term longer, or two terms longer, he didn’t do that. Why? Because we are trying to make it more civilized every year. It was President Putin before. Now it’s President Medvedev. Now we have two people who discuss the issues and make a decisions. It’s better than one. It’s not perfect but it’s much better than it was.