Medvedev talks elections (his and Obama's) in FT interview

GlobalPost

President Dmitry Medvedev gave a long interview to The Financial Times to coincide with the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. I could try to pick and parse it for you, but why not let the man speak for himself? That’s a better way to get some insight into the sort of Kremlinology we Russia watchers have to play in order to gain the slightest understanding of what is going on.

Question #1 was interestingly phrased: not will you run for the presidency, but do you want to run for the presidency next year. Medvedev’s reply:

“I would like to say one thing to you, I think that any leader who occupies such a post as president, simply must want to run. But another question is whether he is going to decide whether he’s going to run for the presidency or not. So his decision is somewhat different from his willingness to run. So this is my answer.”

Clear as day, right?

Question #5: might you and Putin both run for president?

“Well, I think that it is hard to imagine, for one reason at least. The thing is that Vladimir Putin and myself – and Vladimir Putin is my colleague and an old friend – we represent, to a large extent, one and the same political force. And therefore, competition between us may be detrimental to those tasks and goals that we’ve been pursuing in recent years. Therefore, I think this would not be the best scenario for our country and for this specific situation.”

At least that’s a bit clearer.

You can watch a video of the interview here and read a transcript here. It’s a wide-ranging discussion about everything from the role of political competition in economic growth, to Medvedev’s thoughts on regional democracy, to his views on the trial of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to which apps he has on his iPad. Not to be missed are his statements on Syria (“I feel sorry for president al-Assad who is in a very difficult situation now. We met when I visited Syria. President al-Assad has visited Russia several times during my political tenure. It seems to me that he wants political change in his country, he wants reform.”) and Obama (“Let me tell you that no one wishes the re-election of Barack Obama as US president as I do...”). In general, it gives a thorough overview of Medvedev’s ideology and personality – reformist, modernizing, friendly. But with Medvedev it’s never been a question of what he thinks, but what he has the power to do. And that’s why the number one question remains: “Do you want to run for president next year …”

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