Sixty-Six Oh Eight

In a recent speech in Washington DC, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that he hopes US President-elect Barack Obama will help rebuild the strained relations between the US and Russia by addressing what he has described as a lack of “necessary mutual trust.” It is arguable, however, that the lack of trust is due to actions on his side of the globe, rather than ours.

Former President Vladimir Putin boasted an absurdly positive approval rating throughout his two terms of service (1999-2008) largely due to the Russian economy’s bounce back from crisis, where GDP increased six-fold. But post-communist democratic freedoms were sacrificed, internal human rights and freedoms were threatened constantly, and the country remained as illiberal as ever. In recent news it has been revealed that Medvedev, who was strongly endorsed by Putin and nominated his former leader for the office of Prime Minister, intends to amend the Russian constitution in such a way that Putin would be allowed to return to the office of President for up to an additional three terms, or twelve years, of service. In light of this, it is obvious to see that Medvedev’s presidency is only a necessary step in Putin’s attempt to indefinitely retain the power that he holds in Russia, which is essentially ‘his’ country. Putin is effectively the most powerful man to rule Russia since the days of Stalin, in that whenever he wants something to happen, it happens.

Couple this development with the fact that on the morning after Barack Obama’s historic victory in America, Medvedev announced that Moscow would neutralize the possible deployment by the United States of a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland (both designed to guard against missile attacks by “rogue states”) by stationing short-range missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad, and one can understand the general attitude that Russians are taking into this newest era of world politics.

Russia (with Putin behind the wheel) intends to reassert itself on the international stage and challenge the US’s position as lone-superpower, and Barack Obama intends to pursue diplomatic solutions. Let’s hope that he’s up to the challenge.