Time for Change

At last there is clarity. The fog has lifted and we now know who will be the next Russian president. In 2012, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev will swap roles and Putin will return to his Kremlin office for a six-year term (or two).

After being nominated by Putin to head the United Russia party (and thus become the next prime minister), Medvedev in turn nominated his mentor to be the party's presidential candidate. The announcement of the high-level rokirovochka ("castling") was greeted by cheers from the thousands of delegates to the party's grand congress in September.

It was not long before the cynical snickering began, however, as artists churned out cartoons lampooning the decision, including one showing how Putin and his government will age in the coming 12 years. By then, the country's "alpha dog" would be 71. Talking heads also speculated on other vital issues: Would government offices bookend Medvedev with an older version of Putin in their portrait galleries? Would the new president continue flexing his muscles on state TV – flying fighter jets, climbing into tanks, and "deep" sea diving for ancient Greek urns in murky Black Sea waters? Or would Putin embark on his bonus six-year term with a new-found sense of responsibility?

As to Medvedev, Vedomosti editor Tatyana Lysova summed up his predicament in a short but powerful editorial. "The president," she wrote, "showed the country an example of pure, self-sacrificing friendship." Medvedev clearly indicated he wanted to remain on as president and led the public to believe they would have a say in the matter, Lysova explained. "But no, they managed without us. The president's choice is friendship. And friendship won."

A few days later, in a lengthy television interview, Medvedev admitted that, while he enjoyed a high level of public trust, "at the moment, Prime Minister Putin is the most authoritative politician in our country, and his approval ratings are somewhat higher."

Yet even conservative papers expressed concern about this ceremonial switcheroo, comparing Putin's potential term in office to that of the late Leonid Brezhnev, a period of zastoy ("stagnation") which presaged the Soviet Union's collapse.

And when Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, widely considered one of the government's ablest individuals, publicly rebelled, saying he would not serve under a Prime Minister Medvedev, he was treated to a televised dressing-down by Medvedev, who during a cabinet session declared that, "any person doubting the policies of the president or government, or any person who has his own life plan, has the right to come to me with a note, but not to do it publicly."

Kudrin tendered his resignation, leaving Russia without a finance minister at a time when a major European financial crisis looms, the ruble is falling, the government has yet to agree on a budget for the coming year, mysterious plane crashes continue, militants are not letting up, and the treasury is hemorrhaging billions of dollars on the Olympics, the World Cup, and a massive resort project in the North Caucasus, among dozens of other grandiose plans.

The tandem rides on.