The summer of Medvedev’s discontent
A couple of weeks ago, we had some fun pointing out the contrast between Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin’s action-packed summer of motorcycle riding, firefighting, whale shooting and President Dmitry Medvedev’s more sedate activities. According to some reports, Medvedev is getting tired of his mentor’s grandstanding. AFP’s Anna Smolchenko writes: Newsweek’s Russia edition said this ...
A couple of weeks ago, we had some fun pointing out the contrast between Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin's action-packed summer of motorcycle riding, firefighting, whale shooting and President Dmitry Medvedev's more sedate activities. According to some reports, Medvedev is getting tired of his mentor's grandstanding. AFP's Anna Smolchenko writes:
A couple of weeks ago, we had some fun pointing out the contrast between Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin’s action-packed summer of motorcycle riding, firefighting, whale shooting and President Dmitry Medvedev’s more sedate activities. According to some reports, Medvedev is getting tired of his mentor’s grandstanding. AFP’s Anna Smolchenko writes:
Newsweek’s Russia edition said this week that some of Putin’s recent stunts had not been agreed with the Kremlin and when the premier last month personally took controls of an amphibious jet to put out forest fires, the Kremlin considered it an outright violation of the rules of the game.
"They say the president was very angry," an unnamed Kremlin official told the magazine. Putin’s minders keep a poker face. "It was a routine working trip," Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to his tour across the Far East and Siberia. During that voyage Putin personally drove over 2,000 kilometers in a canary-yellow Lada sports car, two identical cars in tow in case the lead vehicle broke down. "Medvedev is ready and wants to run for a second term," said Newsweek. "Putin is on the fence and they have not yet had a final talk about it."
While the name at the top of the ticket may still be unannounced, the ruling United Russia party is already getting into election mode and coping with the political damage done by this summer’s fires and the ongoing violence in the North Caucasus. The party has been purging some longtime leaders in the republics and pushing out incumbents ahead of local elections this fall. As the Carnegie Center’s Nikolai Petrov told the Moscow Times:
"Many voters are tired of seeing the same faces over and over again. And United Russia takes a very close look at opinion polls, many of which they keep secret."
Bringing in fresh blood makes sense, but based on his activities this summer, it doesn’t look like the man who’s ruled Russia in one job or another for the last ten years is in any hurry to leave.
Hat tip: Johnson’s Russia List
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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