WHEN he strides proudly across a red carpet lined with guards in
prerevolutionary uniforms to take his oath as president of Russia, Dmitry
Medvedev may be tempted to look over his shoulder.
Standing only a few yards behind him in the gilded Kremlin hall will be
Vladimir Putin, the outgoing president who was prevented by the constitution
from standing for a third successive term and anointed Medvedev as his heir
instead.
For all the ostentatious show of a transfer of power, few in the Kremlin
believe the ceremony in May will truly mark the end of Putin’s presidency.
According to government sources, Medvedev has agreed to serve a single
four-year term, allowing Putin to stand again in 2012 and reclaim his old
job for a further eight years. The pact would keep Putin in power until
2020, when he will be 68.
Medvedev, 42, who is 13 years younger than his mentor, is expected to win a
landslide 70% of the vote in today’s presidential election. It will be
Russia’s second handover of power since the collapse of the Soviet Union 17
years ago but it may not be as smooth as the first.
In 2000 Boris Yeltsin backed Putin and disappeared from public life. This time
Putin is to stay on - as prime minister. Will Russia’s baby-faced, 5ft 5in
new president be a mere puppet or will he grow into a strong and independent
leader?
“In the end only time will tell,” said a British diplomat. “Putin is such a
strong president and Medvedev appears to be in such awe of him that it’s
difficult to imagine him standing up to him. But that can change. The other
question is whether Russia can be ruled by two men.”
Medvedev and Putin have known each other since 1991. Putin is said genuinely
to trust his protégé, while Medvedev has dutifully provided unwavering
support. Since being chosen as his successor, Medvedev has started to dress,
speak and even swagger like his boss.
Both are from St Petersburg but the similarity in their backgrounds ends
there. Whereas Putin, a factory worker’s son, grew up in a rundown communal
flat where he used to club the rats for sport, Medvedev’s parents were
academics. His father, who died in 2004, taught at a technical institute.
His mother, whom Medvedev speaks to every day, is a retired Russian-language
teacher. They lived in a Soviet apartment block on the city’s drab outskirts.
“It wasn’t much, to be honest, but I lived there for almost 30 years and even
managed to write a PhD there and didn’t feel depressed or embarrassed,” he
recalled. “Our means were average. We didn’t starve, though we had little
money.”
Medvedev met Svetlana, his future wife, at school when he was just seven. The
couple have a 12-year-old boy, Ilya. “I stopped caring about school. It was
much more fun to walk with my future wife than to sit with my textbooks,” he
said.
Both Medvedev and Svetlana went on to university, he to study law in the same
department as Putin and she as an economist.
As a schoolboy, Medvedev worked as a car mechanic. He recalls spending his
wages on ice cream and cinema tickets in contrast to Putin, who was a
hooligan, often involved in fights with other youths.
“There were two things that I wanted very badly: jeans and LPs. And my parents
couldn’t buy me either,” Medevedev said. “Real Wranglers or Levi’s were
available on the black market for a couple of hundred roubles, and the
average teacher’s salary was 120 roubles. Real LPs were very expensive. I
remember dreaming about a double album that had just come out, Pink Floyd’s
The Wall, but 200 roubles was an astronomical amount for me at the time.”
He later paid for his studies by working on building sites and shovelling
snow. His ambition was to become a judge.
But his life was to take a different turn as the Soviet Union began to
disintegrate. Medvedev, then in his early twenties, campaigned for Anatoly
Sobchak, his former law professor, who won election as a reformist mayor of
Leningrad, soon to revert to its traditional name of St Petersburg. Sobchak
gave Medvedev a job as legal adviser to his deputy, Putin, who had left the
KGB and was in charge of attracting foreign investment to the city.
Medvedev is said to have been mistaken for the receptionist by visitors to
Putin’s office. Hard-working, thorough and reliable, however, he quickly
became Putin’s closest adviser and friend. In one sensitive case, he
successfully defended Putin from charges that he had handed lucrative export
licences to cronies’ companies. An inquiry found no evidence that Putin had
profited personally.
Putin went on to Moscow where he began his giddy rise up the political ladder.
Medvedev, a workaholic like Putin, joined the private sector, just as
Russia’s first oligarchs were building their fortunes.
He worked for Ilim Pulp, a paper industry giant, as its head of legal affairs
and soon had the money to buy his first flat. “I remember the happiness I
experienced at the time,” he recalled. “It was incredible.”
In 1999 Putin, who had briefly served as head of the FSB intelligence service
- the former KGB - before his appointment as prime minister, brought
Medvedev to Moscow. Shortly afterwards Putin became president.
“There’s this chemistry, a personal trust between us. Not once did he let me
down,” Putin said recently. Medvedev, who swims twice a day and has banned
ashtrays in the Kremlin, was soon promoted to deputy prime minister. Putin
also appointed him to head Gazprom, the state oil and gas behemoth, which he
proceeded to restructure.
Fuelled by soaring energy prices, Gazprom’s market value surged from £4.5
billion when Medvedev took over to £150 billion today. The company became an
instrument of Kremlin dominance and was accused of bullying when it cut off
gas supplies to Ukraine in a price dispute. Under Medvedev, 30% of Russia’s
natural resources were restored to Kremlin control.
Life for Medvedev’s family also improved as they moved into a £3m apartment in
a walled compound, although according to his income disclosure his salary
has been just £35,000 a year for the past four years and the couple’s only
car is his wife’s 1999 Golf.
Medvedev, who speaks fluent English and has a passion for French wines,
well-cut Italian suits and Georgian food, also declared that he owned an
acre of land outside Moscow and had savings of £55,000.
Svetlana, a socialite and fan of Russian fashion shows who is active in
charities, claimed to have just £7 in her bank account. Medvedev has said
she berates him for being too easy-going with their son. In preparation for
her new role as Russia’s first lady, she has lost weight, ordered more
stylish outfits and attended church more often.
Medvedev, who hired the British rock band Deep Purple to play at the Kremlin
for Gazprom’s 15th birthday last month, has overseen ambitious plans to
improve education, health, agriculture and housing since 2006.
He strikes a far more liberal pose than Putin, speaking of the importance of
democracy and press freedom. He has vowed to fight Russia’s endemic
corruption and has strongly criticised the country’s judiciary which, he
said, must be reformed to put an end to “legal nihilism”.
He takes over a self-assertive Russia which was saved from virtual bankruptcy
by soaring oil prices. After eight years of record growth, the country now
holds £240 billion in foreign currency reserves, the world’s third largest
after Japan and China. Millions still lead lives of grinding poverty but
there is a growing middle class, more than 100,000 millionaires and 40
billionaires.
The consumer boom and political stability have come at a heavy price. Putin
has crushed opposition to the Kremlin in the media, parliament and the
regions.
Most opposition candidates have either refused to stand or, in the case of
Garry Kasparov, the former chess grandmaster, are barred from doing so.
Three other candidates have been allowed to stand but their backing is
minimal. Polls put Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the extreme nationalist, on 10%;
Gennady Zyuganov, the veteran communist, on 10%, and Andrei Bogdanov, leader
of the Democratic party, on less than 1%.
State-controlled media have given blanket coverage to Medvedev, who has
refused to campaign or take part in televised debates with the other
candidates. The Kremlin is still not taking any chances: official posters
claiming that Medvedev’s opponents failed to disclose their incomes are to
be displayed inside polling booths.
Putin was adamant last month that he will answer to Medvedev. “I’ll never be a
substitute for the head of the state,” he said. “Responsibility lies with
the top man. I’m certain that Medvedev is capable of making decisions.I
don’t rule out the possibility that there’ll be differences, but we’re used
to listening to each other.”
Not to be outdone, Medvedev was adamant that he alone would rule Russia for
the next four years: “The president runs Russia, and according to the
constitution there can only be one.”
‘Havesome poloniumtea’, jokes Litvinenko suspect
THE prime suspect in the London murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian
dissident, cracked jokes about his poisoning with polonium210, according to
a French film-maker, writes Matthew Campbell.
Manon Loizeau, whose documentary about the November 2006 murder was broadcast
on French television last week, held several meetings with Andrei Lugovoi, a
Russian MP and businessman who is wanted by Scotland Yard in connection with
the killing.
At one meeting, she said, he gave her a cup of tea. When he noticed she was
not drinking it, he suggested that she put honey in it.
“Polonium goes down a lot better with honey,” he joked. Commenting on reports
that Johnny Depp would play Litvinenko in a Hollywood film, Lugovoi said: “I
hope Brad Pitt plays my role.”
Lugovoi denied that he had killed Litvinenko, who suffered for three weeks in
hospital before succumbing to the poison, a rare radioactive isotope.
