Dmitry Medvedev: Puppet in Vladimir Putin's hands

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Dmitry Medvedev, end of July 2022: Cold political calculation

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Ramil Sitdikov / SNA / IMAGO

One of the worst representatives of the current Putinian Russia in recent months has been Dmitry Medvedev.

Former president, liberal, gadget and hi-tech enthusiast, sidekick of Barack Obama, once considered Russia's hope for democratic development.

Suddenly, like a werewolf, he has become one of the most bloodthirsty bullies threatening Ukraine and the world.

What happened to Medvedev?

The former president is by no means held hostage – he is likely to be acting according to cold political calculations.

I have met Dmitry Medvedev several times.

For example, in 2010, when my colleagues and I set up the Dozhd TV channel, Russia's only independent news channel - and Medvedev was president.

In those years he found many beautiful, if hackneyed, words.

For example, he said that "freedom is better than bondage."

He also urged law enforcement to "stop harassing companies."

It almost looked like a revolution - against Vladimir Putin.

Most opposition figures and independent journalists were very suspicious of Medvedev.

Many said he was a puppet in Putin's hands and his job was to sit in the presidential chair for four years and return it to Putin unharmed.

Apparently Putin saw it that way too.

Sometimes he looked like a decent person

But there were also those who saw Medvedev as an opportunity.

I remember well a conversation with Lyudmila Alekseeva, the legendary Soviet human rights activist and longtime leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

She said everything should be done to get Medvedev on her side.

One should not destroy it - on the contrary, one must try to support it.

His words about freedom are a good start, maybe after a while he dares to dismiss Putin.

(By the way, for four years Putin's fate was in his, Medvedev's, hands - as president, he could have sacked him as prime minister at any time).

Indeed, Medvedev sometimes looked like a decent person.

Other state officials tried to prevent Dozhd TV from the start, but Medvedev chose to support it.

He even came to the fledgling TV station's studio to give interviews to independent journalists.

All of our colleagues later attacked Dozhd TV, accusing us of "selling out to the regime."

The very fact that we communicated with the President was, in their eyes, a criminal conspiracy.

On the other hand, officials held back for a few years, allowing us to build a large and influential television network.

In fact, Medvedev sometimes behaved not like a protégé of Putin, but like a partisan who had switched to the enemy's camp.

He introduced dozens of extremely liberal laws to the Duma.

For example, he pushed through a law requiring civil servants to declare their income – a requirement that is still in force today.

He tried to humanize the prison system.

He began reforming the police force.

The system sabotaged most of these laws, or they were repealed after his resignation.

Occasionally comes to life

Medvedev tried to be friends with Barack Obama.

He insisted that Russia join sanctions on Iran or support the operation in Libya.

It was obviously important to him that Russia is part of the “civilized world”.

But it's fair to say that Medvedev didn't always look like an independent liberal politician.

Often he just looked like a puppet of Putin, which occasionally comes to life - every now and then there is a short circuit, a glitch in the system, and then the lifeless puppet suddenly shows human feelings.

But most of the time she obeys her owner.

The drama takes place in 2011. Influenced by his own entourage, the economy that didn't want Putin back in power, and the few liberals who dared to support him, President Medvedev grew bold for a split second.

He envisioned that he was seeking a second term;

that he could reform the country in his own way and maybe fire Putin.

This misjudgment didn't last long - and Putin noticed it.

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Nobody knows exactly what leverage Putin used - but what is known is how their historic conversation went - I first described it in my book »Endspiel«.

In August 2011, during a fishing trip to Astrakhan, Putin, shocked by the Arab Spring, the assassination of Gaddafi and the trial of Mubarak, said to Medvedev: "The situation is complicated, Dima, you can screw up the country." And Dima agreed.

He didn't argue - after all, only Putin "can't screw it up."

According to my sources, Putin also promised Medvedev in that conversation that the changeover would be temporary and that Medvedev would return to the presidency.

On September 24, 2011, at the congress of the ruling United Russia party, Medvedev announced that he would not seek a second term.

Putin, on the other hand, would seek a third term.

As a result, thousands across the country protested against Putin's return.

For some reason, Medvedev's entourage decided that these rallies were for his support.

The conservative wing of Putin's inner circle reported that "Medvedev's liberals" were traitors planning a "Russian Maidan" with State Department funds.

It was clear to everyone that this was nonsense, but Medvedev's reputation in the eyes of the boss was ruined.

"Have you completely changed your beliefs or have you never been a liberal?"

Nevertheless, after his resignation in 2012 (according to the agreement with Putin), Medvedev was appointed Prime Minister of Russia.

He was careful not to interfere in anything and demonstratively stayed out of all affairs lest, God forbid, incur the wrath of his master.

Even after his resignation as President, Medvedev occasionally spoke to independent journalists.

I last interviewed him in 2014.

One of the questions I asked was, "Have you completely changed your beliefs, or have you never been a liberal?"

if you don't become a conservative in maturity, you have no brains."

But Prime Minister Medvedev seemed like a completely different person.

There were rumors that he was a heavy drinker.

When he was still president, Medvedev was always the object of general ridicule - his nickname on the internet was "the pathetic".

Videos of him dancing absurdly or photos of him asleep at every major event, including the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, are circulating on the internet.

But the general contempt wasn't the worst.

Suddenly »the pathetic« became »the terrible«

Then the criminal proceedings began.

Entrepreneurs or civil servants who had risen under Dmitry Medvedev or who seemed to be close to him lost their companies and positions.

In May 2018, businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov, dubbed Medvedev's "wallet," was arrested (Magomedov and his brother, a former senator, have since been in custody).

And in March 2019, a former minister close to Medvedev, billionaire Mikhail Abyzov (also still in custody), was arrested.

They were part of the former President's inner circle.

Their criminal cases meant that Medvedev's influence on Putin was not even nil, but negative.

In January 2020, Putin abruptly sacked Medvedev as prime minister, creating for him the previously non-existent post of "Deputy Chairman of the Security Council."

No one knew then that a month later Covid would come and that resigning at such a moment was the best gift.

Everyone thought Medvedev was gone forever.

But the war against Ukraine suddenly woke him from his slumber.

“The pathetic” suddenly became “the terrible”.

The intelligent Medvedev's Telegram channel suddenly became a paragon of outrageous rudeness.

He repeatedly writes that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is a drug addict ("his brain has been damaged by psychotropic substances"), and he mocks Olaf Scholz as a "liver sausage fan".

Europeans, he writes, have "severe diarrhea" from fear of freezing to death in "cold dwellings."

Medvedev also keeps making jokes about US President Joe Biden's age.

And after Democrat Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Medvedev published a "fairy tale" based on a story by Pushkin: about an old man and woman who have lost their minds and are trying to catch the biggest goldfish in the ocean.

"I hate them.

They are bastards and scum«

In June, Medvedev published this post: "I'm often asked why my telegram posts are so harsh.

I answer: I hate her.

They are bastards and scum.

They want our death, the death of Russia.

And as long as I'm alive, I'll do everything to make them go."

Last week, a mad imperial manifesto appeared on Medvedev's Vkontakte page, a kind of Russian Facebook: "After the liberation of Kiev and all areas of Little Russia

from the gangs of nationalists preaching their invented Ukrainism, Russia will again become powerful and invincible as it was a thousand years ago during the Old Russian state«.

The author of this text further writes that "Before its annexation to Russia, Georgia did not exist at all".

And also that »Kazakhstan is an artificial state, the former Russian territory.

In this century, the Kazakh authorities have begun to take initiatives to resettle various ethnic groups within the republic, which can be described as genocide against the Russians«.

The post was then deleted - and the next morning Medvedev's press office stated that his account had been hacked and that the text had nothing to do with the former president.

However, jokes surfaced on the internet that it was not Medvedev's account that had been hacked, but Medvedev himself - and probably shortly after February 24.

According to information from those close to the former president, he certainly did not write these texts himself.

A huge new staff of advisers and speechwriters were hired to portray Medvedev as militaristic and imperialist from the start of the war.

The Vkontakte post was the result of the work of the same team.

The creation of Medvedev's new image – not that of a liberal but of an obscurantist – is linked, as usual, to his hopes of regaining the presidency.

He should still remember the conversation with Putin in Astrakhan during the fishing trip.

Putin promised him that the next president would be Medvedev again.

So there is a chance.

According to sources, earlier this year Putin again hinted to Medvedev that the plan is in place - you just have to be a strong politician consistent with the historical moment.

Cold calculation for the post-war period

In recent years, Medvedev has done exactly what he thought would bring him back to the presidency.

As prime minister, he sat quietly and unobtrusively, not bothering anyone, lest he make new enemies or anger Putin.

Now the idle time is over, you have to be aggressive, rattle your sabers, claim victory and run to the front line.

It's a cold calculation for the post-war period.

Medvedev is not alone in this race - but he is clearly trying harder than anyone else.

It is an irony of fate that the mouthpiece of today's Russian fascism is, of all people, the man who was once seen as the beacon of hope for democracy.

"That's what became of your hopes," Putin would probably say to the Russian intelligentsia.

There is no doubt that Medvedev's political future is over.

He failed to earn the confidence of the Liberals even when he was President;

he cannot win the trust of the imperialists – they see him as a weakling and a liberal from a bygone era.

Above all, he cannot become Putin's successor, because without Putin he will no longer exist - a puppet does not function without its master.