Pat Dollard | Young Americans

With what Hussein has to say about destroying our military and missile defense, this new Russian president has got to be pulling for Barack Hussein Obamalamadingdongbaby.

ALABINO, Russia: Dmitri Medvedev, the man chosen to be the next Russian president, sat surrounded by soldiers. It was Feb. 23, Defenders of the Motherland Day, and Medvedev had traveled to the parade grounds of the Tamanskaya Motorized Rifle Division.

The division has been a perennial character in Russian political life. One of its tanks opened fire on the Parliament building in Moscow in 1993, preserving Boris Yeltsin’s presidency. Eight years ago, as a new president, Vladimir Putin, was introducing himself to the world, its platoons fought for the capital of Chechnya, helping forge Putin’s persona as a leader of icy resolve.

Now Medvedev, the presidential successor Putin has personally selected, is creating his own public identity. And here, in a mix of Soviet and Russian symbols, the man rising to Kremlin power avoided the stern themes that have often accompanied Putin’s appearances.

He wanted to talk about living conditions - for soldiers and citizens alike. “Let’s talk about the problems that exist,” he said to the soldiers beside him. “Let’s have a normal conversation. Please.”

The monthlong presidential campaign in Russia has become a season of unstated contrasts. The outcome on March 2, when voters will cast ballots, is already known. Barring something extraordinary and unforeseen, Medvedev, a young and unprepossessing bureaucrat who has never held an elected office, will win by a landslide and become the Kremlin’s new leader. He has said he will appoint Putin as his prime minister.

But Medvedev, 42, is a protégé for a former spy who lacks his sponsor’s imposing KGB resumé. As he has become the country’s second most-watched man, he has implicitly presented himself as both a Putin loyalist and president-in-waiting who will wield power in a manner more gentle than what the world has seen under Putin’s brand of rule.

Medvedev, in commentary outside of official Russian circles, has been cast as a puppet - a president who will labor according to Putin’s command. But he has made unanticipated moves.

In a speech Feb. 15, he publicly embraced personal freedom, saying that liberty is necessary for the state to have legitimacy among its citizens. He has laid out domestic policy goals that seem to speak to Russia’s expanding consumer class.

Medvedev has also struck a campy pose - hamming it up with Deep Purple, the British band whose music was popular in Soviet times - that suggested a dormitory-life playfulness decidedly un-Putinesque.

His words and behavior have raised unexpected but pervasive questions: Does Medvedev mean what he seems to say? Can he relax the Kremlin’s grip on Russian political life that has been a central characteristic of Putin’s rule? And if he does, will he clash with Putin, his principal source of power?

Analysts are split. Sergei Markov, a political scientist who is close to the Kremlin and a member of Parliament, said Medvedev, a trained lawyer with roots in St. Petersburg, has an affinity for the West. He expects that Medvedev will push for more political freedom - to a point.

“Medvedev will try to encourage political competition within the system without destabilizing the system,” Markov said. “How he does this, we will see. But I think stability will be the priority.”

He also said that the model Putin has chosen for his transition from Russia’s highest office, and Medvedev’s flashes of liberal inclinations, could lead to unintended divides in Russia’s circles of power. That, he said, is a reason Medvedev will only push so far.

“The Russian government has weak institutions,” Markov said. “A split between two personalities could destabilize the political situation, and because politics plays a main role in the Russian economy, if there is a split, it could destabilize the economy, too. So that is a major risk.”

Read Full IHT article here.