Publication

This brief analyzes political developments in Russia during the third year of Medvedev’s presidency. According to the author, the tandem model – which divided roles into that of official leader, President Medvedev, and real leader, Prime Minister Putin – has largely exhausted itself. The political class appears to have settled on an economic and political model for the coming decade, and rather than setting a course to modernize the system, it seems to have returned to the old familiar ways, divvying up the money earned through the export of natural resources.