Yet, internationally it was more expedient to pin the war on Putin and portray Medvedev as a new type of Russian politician.Īs Medvedev was deliberating on that problem in the Kremlin, Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, was sweeping to victory in the 2008 U.S. Domestically, it was important to show that Medvedev was strong and independent and that he had declared war without consulting Putin. Though the war ended on favorable terms for Russia, it forced Medvedev’s team to grapple with a contradiction between its goals. Even when he sent troops into Georgia in August 2008, everyone said it was Putin’s war, as though Medvedev himself did not exist. Nobody in the world, or his own country, seemed to take him seriously, with the international media referring to him as the “handpicked successor” of Vladimir Putin, who had since become prime minister. This article is adapted from Mikhail Zygar’s new book, All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin.įor the first two years of his presidency, Dmitry Medvedev’s main task was simply to be seen.
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