The idyll had started so well… On June 23, 2010, invited to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev entered the history of the social network with the blue bird by inaugurating his account: “Hello everyone, I’m now on Twitter and here’s my first message”, he tapped, all smiles, between two dates with the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and the boss of Apple Steve Jobs (who had offered him a latest iPhone cry), before biting into a hamburger with Barack Obama. At the time, there was no question of calling Americans “dirty Anglo-Saxon perverts” or Westerners of “half-wits”, even less of threatening the world with a “huge nuclear explosion”, or even a ‘Third World War’.
Twelve years later, these words are nevertheless those of “Dimon” (the diminutive of Dmitri, his nickname), now vice-president of the Russian Security Council. Addicted to his smartphone, the former head of the Kremlin who loves “selfies” spits his hatred of the West on social networks daily. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the “liberal” of yesterday has turned into a rabid propagandist, in the leading pack of “turbo-patriots”.
More of a Putinist than Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, eternal dolphin of “Vladimir”, twelve years his junior, has every intention of remaining in the small papers of the current president. “If there was only one word to describe Medvedev, it would be ‘opportunist’, slice Sergey Radchenko, professor at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington. He is not an individual who has much principles. He once presented himself as a technocrat, an innovator, and even a democrat. Today, he has completely changed his ideological framework in order to remain close to power, even if it means using genocidal rhetoric.” Like this mind-blowing release, last July, on the Telegram network: “I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want the death of Russia. And as long as I live, I will do everything to make them disappear.”
Putin’s puppet president
Medvedev alone embodies all the West’s disillusionment with Russian power. On the eve of his election in 2008 after eight years in power of Vladimir Putin, who could not run for a third consecutive term, Dmitry Medvedev ticked all the boxes of “modern Russian” at a time when the White House hoped to open a new chapter with Moscow. Geek, open to the world, anti-corruption and pro-democracy, he did not belong to the reputedly conservative clan of “siloviki”, from the security services. Freshly elected, the 43-year-old president roamed his relaxed air and his chubby face in Western capitals. To the Russians, he sold “modernization from top to bottom”, which was to be based on “the values and institutions of democracy”, he declared in November 2009 in his second address to the nation. The former law professor at St. Petersburg State University had even had the audacity to criticize public conglomerates like Rosatom – in the atomic energy sector – formed under the leadership of his predecessor.
Vladimir Putin did not take offense. No doubt he knew that he would soon return to the fore, presenting his candidacy for the presidency of 2012, run in advance. Above all, everyone knew who, between him and his replacement, was the real boss. “Putin appointed Medvedev to succeed him, and it is no coincidence that the two men are still linked years later, explains Galia Ackerman, a specialist in post-Soviet Russia. He chose him for his docility! ” From the town hall of Saint Petersburg where they met in the 1990s until today, “Dmitri” has remained in the shadow of his elder, even when he acceded to the supreme function.
The White House was not mistaken for long, advised by its diplomats. In a 2008 telegram revealed by Wikileaks, Medvedev is described as “Putin’s Robin – aka Batman”, in other words a supporting role. On Russian state television, comedians openly make fun of this curious hitch. In 2011, in a sketch from a popular show, a Medvedev lookalike arrives on stage on a tandem, before immediately giving way to an ersatz Putin, in front of a hilarious audience, including the real Putin, seated in the front row. ..
Post-Putin in sight?
Is it to break this reputation that Medvedev stood up to his mentor, in 2011, when the UN voted on the resolution authorizing intervention in Libya? Against Putin’s ‘no’ advice, the president abstained under pressure from Washington, allowing de facto adoption. “However, Westerners have violated the terms of the resolution, going beyond the protection of civilians and the no-fly zone, recalls Sylvie Bermann, French ambassador to Moscow from 2017 to 2019. This episode, considered as a betrayal, marked the Russians a lot and tarnished the reputation of Medvedev, seen as a weakling.
It partly explains the aggressiveness of the ex-president for “the West”. “His radicalization accelerated in 2017, resumes Sergey Radchenko: he became brutally anti-democratic after the release of a documentary by the opponent Alexei Navalny [aujourd’hui en prison] revealing a series of corruption scandals.” In this film viewed over 45 million times on YouTube, we discover the “Medvedev system”, a myriad of screen companies thanks to which Putin’s foal held two secret dachas estimated at 85 and 120 million dollars, a family property, an agricultural empire, several yachts and a vineyard in Tuscany. For a man who claimed to have “declared war on corruption”, the case looks bad. An unprecedented wave of demonstrations is shaking the country.
Fallen out of favor with the liberals, insipid in the eyes of Putin’s hawks, Dmitry Medvedev was gradually sidelined, until he was removed from his post as Prime Minister in 2020. “He no longer had any political capital, said Ben Noble, an associate professor at University College London. His appointment as vice-president of the Security Council was seen as a consolation prize. But with his change of tone since the start of the war, he has perhaps regained credit among the most warmongering of the elite.”
The more the Russian army sinks into Ukraine, the more Medvedev vociferates. First to support the annexation of the Donbass provinces “for the restoration of historical justice” (sic); he is also one of the most zealous when it comes to agitating the nuclear threat. The calculation could turn out to be clever. As long as Putin is in the Kremlin, he places himself under its protection. If one day it is necessary to replace the president (who has just turned 70), “Dimon” will have done everything to be in pole position.