Photo from 2007 with then Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. REUTERS/RIA NovostiWho Really Wields Power In Russia -- David Hearst, The Guardian
A corrupt security service on a longer leash than the KGB – a new book tells a very different story to the official one.
The two men who run Russia have been sketching varying visions of the future, in what passes for the party conference season. In Sochi a week ago, Vladimir Putin spent nearly three hours parrying questions from the Valdai Club, a group of foreign academics and journalists (including the Guardian) and told them that things would stay as they are. The prime minister looked tanned and fit. His nails were manicured and he turned out for the occasion in a glitzy suit and open linen shirt. If Franklin D Roosevelt had four terms of office, why could not he? Putin poured scorn on the idea of returning to elected regional governors and regaled the company with tales of how one of them bolted through the back door rather than face angry villagers after a disaster.
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My Comment: There are two elites in Russia. There are those who run businesses and stay away from politics, and there are those who use politics to get into business. And as for those who use their businesses to influence politics .... well .... they tend to end up in jail.
As for PM Putin and President Medvedev .... they have both known each other for almost 20 years, and that relationship is not going to change. They both rule Russia, and they both complement each other extremely well .... and they both know that.
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