Dmitry Medvedev came to power amidst high hopes that Russia would liberalise, but the authoritarianism brought in by Vladimir Putin remains.
Dmitry Medvedev's Russia still feels the cold hand of Vladimir PutinFrom Telegraph.co.uk by Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 6:00AM GMT Sunday 07 Mar 2010
Emboldened by what he thought was the new spirit of openness sweeping Russia, Major Alexei Dymovsky decided to blow the whistle on police corruption in his run-down fiefdom on the Black Sea coast.
The dispirited detective, from the crumbling port of Novorossiysk, broke his silence in a You Tube broadcast that became an internet sensation, garnering well over a million hits.
Four months later, he may be wishing he had kept quiet. He is now languishing in jail after being sacked and accused of fraud, while a human rights activist who took up his cause, Vadim Karastelyov, can barely stand after two men stabbed him with sharpened wooden stakes outside his flat last Saturday.
Concerns about the way Mr Dymovksy was silenced, though, go well beyond the simple matter of whether police in Novorossiysk can continue to take bribes and frame the innocent with impunity, as he had claimed. It has also raised disturbing questions about the promises of Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, to end the creeping authoritarianism brought in by his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, and usher in a renewed era of freedom.
"What is happening now is illusory," said Mr Karastelyov, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph after his discharge from hospital last week. "Medvedev does not have the political weight to make the necessary changes. There is a huge gulf between what he is saying and reality. We have hopes but no illusions."
Even though he was handpicked for the job by Mr Putin, a man accused of strangling the chaotic but vibrant democracy that Russia briefly enjoyed in the 1990s, Mr Medvedev was quick to cast himself as a liberal reformer when he came to power in 2008. His promises to fight corruption and restore the rule of law were hailed as a welcome change from the Putin era - not least in Britain, where the Litvinenko poisoning case showed a Russia lurching back to Soviet habits. Hopes that the new man would be liberal and pro-Western were raised further by the fact he was a lawyer by training, not a spy, and his matey disclosure that he was a fan of British heavy metal band Deep Purple.
Yet now, half-way into his four year term, the liberal newspapers, human rights groups and NGOs that suffered increasing harrasssment during Mr Putin's reign say little has changed. Mr Medvedev may well have denounced Josef Stalin and spoken of the need for political competition and modernisation. But the problem, say those who earnestly want to believe him, is that he is all talk and little action.
"We have not given up on him yet, and we should give him the benefit of the doubt," says Tanya Lokshina, of the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch. "But quite a bit of time has passed and so far there has been little but rhetoric and more rhetoric."
Mr Medvedev does boast some reforms to his credit. He has replaced a clutch of regional governors, and fired a slew of top police and military officers. However, he also appears to have gone out of his way to mimic the walk, talk and even dress sense of his mentor, Mr Putin, prompting some critics to call him "Putin's younger brother". Kremlin-watchers also note that while Mr Putin addresses Mr Medvedev using the casual form of you in Russian or "ty," Mr Medvedev employs the more deferential and formal 'vy' when talking to Mr Putin, underlining his junior role in the partnership. Kremlin image makers seems to avoid putting Mr Medvedev up for the kind of macho photo opportunities deemed suitable for Mr Putin, who was this week pictured on horseback in snow-bound Siberia.
"Medvedev is warmer and sunnier," said one former senior US intelligence official. "But he does not want to change things that much. He believes in what might be called 'venture liberalism' - trying out various things, but not really getting serious."
Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, describes Mr Medvedev's job in the Kremlin in rather less flattering terms. His role, as she sees it, is not so much as president but as first lady.
"The cheerful facade is composed of Russia's miniature president, Dmitry Medvedev, whose job, like that of America's first lady, is to keep up appearances," she said. "And the appearance that needs the most maintenance is that of a modern and civilised Russia."
Among those who are disappointed, but not surprised, by the Medvedev track record is Yevgeny Ikhlov, an expert at the 'For Human Rights' pressure group, which is involved in the case of Major Dymovsky, the police whistleblower. He claims there was a secret agreement, sealed during Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency, that allowed the police and the FSB security service to do as they please in return for their unswerving loyalty to the regime.
"The system senses weakness in Medvedev and crushes anyone who dares to pop their head above the parapet," said Mr Ikhlov. "Medvedev gave people hope and created a different atmosphere in society but he is not strong enough to break the unwritten agreement with the law enforcement agencies."
Mr Medvedev's aides, who are aware of the perestroika expectations that their boss initially generated, urge patience. "Such changes do not happen quickly," says one adviser close to the Kremlin. "You cannot change the situation just like that." Russia, it is argued, is the largest country in the world, and moves like a super tanker.
Yet with whistleblowers like Major Dymovsky still viewed primarily as troublemakers, analysts who thought the main question would be purely the speed of Medvedev's reforms are now pondering other questions instead. Is he his own man or just Mr Putin's creature? And does he really believe in reform, as the impassioned style of many of his speeches might suggest, or is he just a fall guy whose job is to defuse growing social tension at a time of financial stress? With a presidential election in 2012 approaching, many sceptics believe that Mr Medvedev is merely a temporary fixture and that Mr Putin, who is now prime minister, is preparing to take his old job back at the very top of Russian politics.
"Medvedev is keeping the seat warm," says one seasoned Russia watcher who regularly interacts with the Kremlin. "You need to be more than a nice person to run a place like Russia."
