Putin's Man Medvedev Is Already Turning to Putin
By JOSEPH SCHUMAN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
So just who is Dmitry Medvedev, the 42-year-old Putin loyalist, election neophyte and Kremlin man at Gazprom who now looks set to assume Russia's presidency?
Mr. Medvedev, like fellow first deputy prime minister Sergei B. Ivanov, a former defense minister, had long been one of the favorites before Vladimir Putin yesterday made what amounts to a de facto anointment of his successor. Mr. Putin, constitutionally banned from seeking a third term when his current one expires next spring, has consolidated Russian political power enough to make clear his choice is the one that counts. And as the Washington Post notes, a solid majority of Russians have told pollsters they will back the same candidate he does. In an apparent reaction to the choice -- and to an end of the uncertainty over presidential succession -- the two main stock indexes of Moscow closed at record highs, the Financial Times adds. And yet, it's far from clear just what the election of Mr. Medvedev will mean for his countrymen and a world in which petro-rich Russia is playing an increasingly prominent role.
Is Mr. Putin, as the New York Times puts it, "seeking to retain influence by turning his office over to someone he can readily steer from behind the scenes"? Mr. Medvedev, 13 years his boss's junior, was among Mr. Putin's posse of St. Petersburg aides who moved to the Kremlin when the former KGB agent joined the team of then-president Boris Yeltsin and saw his own fortunes rise when Mr. Putin took the top job. He has never been elected to office, and unlike many of Mr. Putin's inner circle, he was never employed by the KGB or its post-Soviet successor. He is a former law professor who, the Times says, has no Kremlin power base of his own, and while he enjoys a reputation as a technocrat with a strong grasp of economics and significant power over Russia's domestic budget, he has little experience with foreign policy.
The Los Angeles Times notes Mr. Medvedev "has periodically served as one of the friendlier faces the Kremlin presents to the West," repeatedly meeting with foreign journalists, talking about foreign investment and liberalization of Russian markets and charming "international power brokers at the World Economic Forum in Davos." But he has also played a big role in turning Gazprom into what The Wall Street Journal calls "an arm of Kremlin power, cutting off gas supplies to neighbors and squeezing foreign investors such as Royal Dutch Shell." During Mr. Medvedev's time there, "Gazprom has also actively bought media outlets critical of the Kremlin. All became more loyal after the takeover," the Journal adds.
During yesterday's announcement, Mr. Putin, who led his United Russia party in last week's election to parliamentary dominance, didn't discuss his own future role. But Mr. Medvedev brought it up today. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian prime ministers have served at the pleasure of Messrs. Yeltsin or Putin, who didn't hesitate to fill that post in whatever way served their needs. Today, Mr. Medvedev said he'd really like to have Mr. Putin as his premier, but that it will be Mr. Putin's choice: "Having expressed my readiness to run for president of Russia, I appeal to [Mr. Putin] with a request to give his principal agreement to head the Russian government."