Medvedev: Putin's Puppet?

Okay, maybe that's too simple question to answer. Yet May is coming, and soon Medvedev will "lead" Russia. International Herald Tribune has an article out about Kremlin Gazprom Bureaucrat (KGB) Medvedev and the direction he may take. It is quite obvious that Putin still retains a substantional amount of control in Russian politics, and change isn't likely. If Kasparov isn't surprised, we shouldn't be.

Will Dmitri Medvedev ever be his own man?

That question, which arose immediately after President Vladimir Putin named Medvedev as his successor, has yet to be settled. If anything, the notion has only deepened in recent weeks that while Medvedev will occupy the Kremlin after May 7, Putin will continue to control it from his new post as prime minister.

Whether or not this will be a proper or effective arrangement, it seems to be one that most Russians want.

Putin, who is limited to two terms under the Russian Constitution, in December endorsed Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and longtime aide. With the Kremlin championing his candidacy and using its authority to marginalize the opposition, Medvedev coasted to victory in March. Since then, he has introduced no major staff appointments, changes in the structure of government or strikingly new proposals.

While heir to all-mighty czars and general secretaries, Medvedev comes across as the dutiful senior bureaucrat he once was, a former law professor who seems more interested in doing a line-by-line budget analysis for fiscal 2010 than in carrying this nation forward.

So no change.

Russian Political System: Hybrid Democracy, Flawed Democracy, Authoritarian?