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Medvedev Trying to Carve Out New Role as President to Help Modernize Nation

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Stephen R. Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

July 2, 2008

Stephen Sestanovich, CFR senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies and a former ambassador-at-large to the former Soviet states, says that Russia's new president, Dmitri Medvedev, " has not replaced Putin as president. He's only assumed the title." But he says that Medvedev, who has a milder demeanor than Putin, has been spending considerable time trying to deemphasize Europe's ties with the United States, and instead to substitute a "troika" of Russia-EU-U.S. cooperation. He has also stressed the need to rid Russia of economic and political corruption but it is unclear whether this will bear much fruit.

Dmitri Medvedev, the new Russian president, has been in office now for just short of two months. What's your overall impression of his policies and demeanor?

For anyone who wondered whether former President Vladimir Putin [now the prime minister] would be able to transfer his own popularity to someone else, that question has pretty much been put to rest. Medvedev's approval ratings, while in the low to mid 70s, are pretty respectable. They are not as high as Putin's own as prime minister—those are in the low to mid 80s. Now, the question is: approval in what role? And that's still a little bit unclear. It seems that Medvedev has not replaced Putin as president. He's only assumed the title. Even Russians who believe that he will, before long—meaning in the next couple of years in the course of his first term—take on a true presidential role, don't expect him to be in conflict with Putin now or for the foreseeable future. That forecast has certainly been borne out. Medvedev has given no sign of conflict with Putin.

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Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.