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Medvedev: Russia's cautious champion of reform
MOSCOW – A year after his election as Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev seems eager to push for reform but reluctant to act.
His calls last year for democracy and justice raised hopes in Russia for an easing of the pressure on Russia's tiny liberal opposition and restoration of some of the democratic institutions dismantled by his predecessor, patron and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
And in recent months Medvedev and his advisers have begun publicly though gently urging some of the political, judicial and economic reforms that many expected him to seek from the start.
But the Kremlin maintains a monopoly on political power, major TV networks still move in lockstep behind the government, prominent critics of the Kremlin are occasionally assassinated, opposition protesters often beaten and harassed by police and pro-government thugs.
As Medvedev approaches Monday's election anniversary, experts say he has become increasingly vocal in support of reform, but he has not moved to reverse any of the policies of Putin, who chipped away at democratic rights during his eight years in office.
"Medvedev early on made quite a few liberal statements," said Maria Lipman, a political expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank. "But the situation has not changed at all. There were statements made, but no policy moves followed."
Medvedev's apparent reluctance to act comes at a time when his hand has been strengthened against Putin by the collapse of the ruble, falling oil prices and Russia's economic turmoil.
A choir of financial experts have criticized the Cabinet, led by Putin, for its handling of the fallout from the global financial crisis.
But it's not clear how loyal the Russian government is to Medvedev.
Instead of using the election anniversary to signal a new direction for Russia, authorities set the day after as the date for a new trial of one-time billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Once a major financier of liberal democratic reform groups, Khodorkovsky is regarded by many here as a scapegoat — singled out by Russia's rulers as an example to the country's other billionaires not to meddle in politics. He was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison, and faces new embezzlement and theft charges.
"The regime will change only when Khodorkovsky is freed," Yevgeny Kiselyov, a journalist who supporters say was forced off network television by Putin, said on a recent radio talk show. "While he is in prison, all the talk about a thaw, about the liberalization of the regime and reforms is nothing more than pathetic waffle."
When he has acted, Medvedev has sent mixed signals.
On Jan. 2 he signed a bill that would suspend the right to jury trials in cases involving national security — a measure critics see as paving the way for the speedy incarceration of dissident political leaders if the economic crisis triggers civil unrest.
But 25 days later, in a move applauded by human rights activists, Medvedev's aides said he had ordered the withdrawal of legislation that would have expanded the definition of treason that, critics argued, could include any kind of political activity or speech obnoxious to authorities.
A Kremlin aide said Medvedev was concerned about the bill, which foes compared to the repressive measures of the Stalin era.
Liberal economist Yevgeny Gontmakher of the Institute of Contemporary Development recently made the startling admission that the government is generally deaf to experts like himself who advise Medvedev on economic policy.
Scholars with the institute, known by its Russian acronym INSOR, have voiced "mild, professional" rebukes of the Kremlin's economic policies, only to be "labeled as enemies of the government and as enemies of Russia, and so forth," he said.
Medvedev's response to the January slayings of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova on a Moscow street came in marked contrast to Putin's brusque reaction to the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
After three days of silence, Putin said Politkovskaya's influence over Russian political life was "extremely insignificant."
Medvedev, by contrast, met privately with the editors of Novaya Gazeta, where both Baburova and Politkovskaya worked, to express his condolences.
But the meeting took place more than a week after the event. The Russian president did not call on authorities to capture and prosecute the killers. Moreover, Russia's state-controlled television networks were not invited to the meeting — in a country where most people rely on television for news.
Following the killings, Medvedev revived a 36-member presidential advisory council on human rights, which stopped meeting after Putin left office last May. The council was one of the few state bodies to include government critics.
There is no guarantee that Medvedev will listen to the group, which members say Putin first lectured and later allowed to languish when he failed to approve appointments.
In a rare show of tolerance, authorities on Feb. 15 permitted several hundred human rights activists to march through central Moscow to protest the deaths of Markelov and Baburova. Authorities in recent years routinely have denied permission for marches led by liberal opposition groups and have used force to break up unauthorized demonstrations.
But the protest was permitted only because its leaders were careful not to let it turn into a political demonstration critical of the Kremlin.
Still, Medvedev quietly has urged reversal or reform of some of Putin's initiatives, and recently slammed the system Putin put in place for presidential pardons.
However, at almost every juncture, Medvedev has hinted at reform rather than order changes. What impact his subtle messages have had on Russia's huge and powerful bureaucracy is unclear.
While the constitution gives Medvedev the power to fire Putin, whom many critics hold responsible for Russia's economic mess, that does not appear to be a realistic option today.
Sergei Stankevich, an adviser to President Boris Yeltsin from 1992 to 1993, told the newspaper Kommersant that Putin and Medvedev are "inseparable."
"Either they go down together or weather this storm together," Stankevich said. "This latter is not impossible even now, as long as they explain to society why all major aid had gone to state corporations."
A year after Medvedev's election, most important posts are still held by veterans of the security services and military loyal to Putin.
In Russia, these security agencies — rather than any political party or election outcome — may be the true source of power.
"Putin will fire Medvedev rather than the other way round," Valeria Novodorskaya, a Soviet-era dissident and longtime critic of Putin, told Kommersant. "He has all security structures in his pocket."
MOSCOW – A year after his election as Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev seems eager to push for reform but reluctant to act.
His calls last year for democracy and justice raised hopes in Russia for an easing of the pressure on Russia's tiny liberal opposition and restoration of some of the democratic institutions dismantled by his predecessor, patron and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
And in recent months Medvedev and his advisers have begun publicly though gently urging some of the political, judicial and economic reforms that many expected him to seek from the start.
But the Kremlin maintains a monopoly on political power, major TV networks still move in lockstep behind the government, prominent critics of the Kremlin are occasionally assassinated, opposition protesters often beaten and harassed by police and pro-government thugs.
As Medvedev approaches Monday's election anniversary, experts say he has become increasingly vocal in support of reform, but he has not moved to reverse any of the policies of Putin, who chipped away at democratic rights during his eight years in office.
"Medvedev early on made quite a few liberal statements," said Maria Lipman, a political expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank. "But the situation has not changed at all. There were statements made, but no policy moves followed."
Medvedev's apparent reluctance to act comes at a time when his hand has been strengthened against Putin by the collapse of the ruble, falling oil prices and Russia's economic turmoil.
A choir of financial experts have criticized the Cabinet, led by Putin, for its handling of the fallout from the global financial crisis.
But it's not clear how loyal the Russian government is to Medvedev.
Instead of using the election anniversary to signal a new direction for Russia, authorities set the day after as the date for a new trial of one-time billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Once a major financier of liberal democratic reform groups, Khodorkovsky is regarded by many here as a scapegoat — singled out by Russia's rulers as an example to the country's other billionaires not to meddle in politics. He was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison, and faces new embezzlement and theft charges.
"The regime will change only when Khodorkovsky is freed," Yevgeny Kiselyov, a journalist who supporters say was forced off network television by Putin, said on a recent radio talk show. "While he is in prison, all the talk about a thaw, about the liberalization of the regime and reforms is nothing more than pathetic waffle."
When he has acted, Medvedev has sent mixed signals.
On Jan. 2 he signed a bill that would suspend the right to jury trials in cases involving national security — a measure critics see as paving the way for the speedy incarceration of dissident political leaders if the economic crisis triggers civil unrest.
But 25 days later, in a move applauded by human rights activists, Medvedev's aides said he had ordered the withdrawal of legislation that would have expanded the definition of treason that, critics argued, could include any kind of political activity or speech obnoxious to authorities.
A Kremlin aide said Medvedev was concerned about the bill, which foes compared to the repressive measures of the Stalin era.
Liberal economist Yevgeny Gontmakher of the Institute of Contemporary Development recently made the startling admission that the government is generally deaf to experts like himself who advise Medvedev on economic policy.
Scholars with the institute, known by its Russian acronym INSOR, have voiced "mild, professional" rebukes of the Kremlin's economic policies, only to be "labeled as enemies of the government and as enemies of Russia, and so forth," he said.
Medvedev's response to the January slayings of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova on a Moscow street came in marked contrast to Putin's brusque reaction to the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
After three days of silence, Putin said Politkovskaya's influence over Russian political life was "extremely insignificant."
Medvedev, by contrast, met privately with the editors of Novaya Gazeta, where both Baburova and Politkovskaya worked, to express his condolences.
But the meeting took place more than a week after the event. The Russian president did not call on authorities to capture and prosecute the killers. Moreover, Russia's state-controlled television networks were not invited to the meeting — in a country where most people rely on television for news.
Following the killings, Medvedev revived a 36-member presidential advisory council on human rights, which stopped meeting after Putin left office last May. The council was one of the few state bodies to include government critics.
There is no guarantee that Medvedev will listen to the group, which members say Putin first lectured and later allowed to languish when he failed to approve appointments.
In a rare show of tolerance, authorities on Feb. 15 permitted several hundred human rights activists to march through central Moscow to protest the deaths of Markelov and Baburova. Authorities in recent years routinely have denied permission for marches led by liberal opposition groups and have used force to break up unauthorized demonstrations.
But the protest was permitted only because its leaders were careful not to let it turn into a political demonstration critical of the Kremlin.
Still, Medvedev quietly has urged reversal or reform of some of Putin's initiatives, and recently slammed the system Putin put in place for presidential pardons.
However, at almost every juncture, Medvedev has hinted at reform rather than order changes. What impact his subtle messages have had on Russia's huge and powerful bureaucracy is unclear.
While the constitution gives Medvedev the power to fire Putin, whom many critics hold responsible for Russia's economic mess, that does not appear to be a realistic option today.
Sergei Stankevich, an adviser to President Boris Yeltsin from 1992 to 1993, told the newspaper Kommersant that Putin and Medvedev are "inseparable."
"Either they go down together or weather this storm together," Stankevich said. "This latter is not impossible even now, as long as they explain to society why all major aid had gone to state corporations."
A year after Medvedev's election, most important posts are still held by veterans of the security services and military loyal to Putin.
In Russia, these security agencies — rather than any political party or election outcome — may be the true source of power.
"Putin will fire Medvedev rather than the other way round," Valeria Novodorskaya, a Soviet-era dissident and longtime critic of Putin, told Kommersant. "He has all security structures in his pocket."
