Dealing With the "New" Russia
Will U.S.-Russian relations improve under Medvedev?
By Roland Flamini

Winston Churchill once famously called Russia "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Viewed from Washington, or any Western capital, Churchill's observation still rings true in today's post-Soviet era. On May 7, Dmitry Medvedev became Russia's third president. But no one knows how much clout he'll exercise, given that he appointed his powerful predecessor, Vladimir Putin, as prime minister,. . . .

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• Can Medvedev be more than a surrogate for Putin?
• Are the West and Russia heading for a new Cold War?
• Does Putin have legitimate grievances with the Bush administration?

Is Western-style democracy possible in Russia?

Fyodor Lukyanov Editor, Russia in Global Affairs, a Moscow-based foreign-policy quarterly. Written for CQ Researcher, June 2008	Veronika Krasheninnikova Director of U.S. Operations, Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation. Written for CQ Researcher, June 2008

Out of the Shadows Steps Russia's New President

Vladimir Putin, a one-time officer in the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, has a reputation for surrounding himself with other former agents. In that respect, Putin's choice to succeed him as president, Dmitry Medvedev, differs fundamentally from his mentor: He does not have an intelligence background. But the soft-spoken 42-year-old lawyer — Putin's loyal collaborator for 17 years — does share an important trait with other members of the Putin team. He belongs to what the Financial Times recently called "the new clan of power brokers" — officials who were members of Putin's foreign relations committee when Putin was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.

Medvedev had a respectable childhood in an intellectual family. His father was a professor at Leningrad Technical Institute, and his mother a teacher. He studied law in Leningrad, and by the late 1980s was head of the law faculty of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) State University, at the same time he was moonlighting as a legal adviser to city hall, where he first met Putin. In 1991, when Putin became deputy mayor, Medvedev went to work full time as legal adviser to the foreign relations committee.

Medvedev addresses students in Beijing on May 24, 2008. Some Russia-watchers saw his visit to China as significant, given tension between Moscow and the U.S. (AFP/Getty Images/Natalia Kolesnikova)

When Putin went to the Kremlin as President Boris Yeltsin's prime minister, Medvedev followed, first as Putin's deputy chief of staff and three years later as chief of staff. Putin also appointed him chairman of natural gas producer Gazprom, where he gradually replaced its independent-minded executives with a management more loyal to the government. Throughout his rise, Medvedev quietly operated in the shadow of his mentor, whom many said he treated as a father figure. But Der Spiegel magazine reports that when German Chancellor Angela Merkel met him following his election, she sized him up as — in the magazine's words — "a seasoned, ambitious apparatchik who knows what he wants."

Medvedev is energetic, good-natured and said to be unfailingly polite, with a taste for trendy clothes and American rock music. On the campaign trail, he made speeches about reducing taxes and slashing red tape while freeing the media and boosting the independence of the court system. But analysts point out that his background shows little promise of independent action. As the Financial Times put it, "His record as one of Mr. Putin's most senior officials, as the president rolled back many of those freedoms, throws these pledges into doubt."

[1] Caroline Belton, "Anointed enigma: the quiet rise of a dedicated Dmitry Medvedev," FT.com, Feb. 28, 2008, www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72ede4b6-e626-11dc-8398-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=7ee6a12e-7d74-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1.

Footnote: 1. Caroline Belton, "Anointed enigma: the quiet rise of a dedicated Dmitry Medvedev," FT.com, Feb. 28, 2008, www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72ede4b6-e626-11dc-8398-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=7ee6a12e-7d74-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1.

[2] Matthias Schepp, "Don't Get Too Excited About Medvedev," Der Spiegel, March 3, 2008, www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,540313,00.html.

Footnote: 2. Matthias Schepp, "Don't Get Too Excited About Medvedev," Der Spiegel, March 3, 2008, www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,540313,00.html.

[3] Owen Matthews, "From a Mouse to a Tsar," Newsweek, March 3, 2008, www.newsweek.com/id/114679/page/3.

Footnote: 3. Owen Matthews, "From a Mouse to a Tsar," Newsweek, March 3, 2008, www.newsweek.com/id/114679/page/3.

[4] Schepp, op. cit.

Footnote: 4. Schepp, op. cit.

[5] Belton, op. cit.

Footnote: 5. Belton, op. cit.