Handsome Dmitry

Handsome. Manipulated. Clever. Cunning. Ephemeral. Strong. I asked six people in Rome to give a word for Dmitry Medvedev and this is the result. No deep thinking, of course. But nearly five months after his election, 60 days in office, the new Russian president provokes mixed impressions and opposed visions. Seen from here, Russia seems still under Putin's spell, but those ‘strong' and ‘clever' give a hint to the fact that the young head of State is beginning to gain a stature of his own also in the West. The general impression, though not a structured one yet, is that Medvedev is building little by little a ‘presidential personality' that may be less pyrotechnic than his predecessor's, but that won't be the colourless photocopy many have evoked in the run up to March election. The doubt, though, over who is going to be... [read full story]