SocraticGadfly: Is Medvedev ready to give Putin the boot?

April 01, 2009

Is Medvedev ready to give Putin the boot?

Foreign Policy says Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is indeed becoming more his own man vis-à-vis his predecessor and mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Why now?

The economic meltdown, fueled in Russia by collapsing oil prices.

I wouldn’t expect Pismo Beach out of Medvedev, but he may actually be wanting to be a reformer, at least in Russian terms.

And, as the story notes, they have strongly different backgrounds — Medvedev the lawyer vs. Putin the KGB apparatchik.

If nothing else, as the authors note, if Russia’s economy goes further in the tank, Medvedev may have no choice but to lean harder on Putin.

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