Russia’s new president

Russia’s new president was sworn in during a short ceremony today. Medvedev is a 42 year old businessman, a trained lawyer, writer and most significantly, the hand picked successor of outgoing President Vladimir Putin who’s still the most popular and powerful politician in Russia. Putin is stepping down as president but no one expects him to disappear. During his outgoing speech, Putin said he never broke his promise to serve Russia during his eight year tenure as president. Soon after the ceremony, Putin was nominated by Medvedev to be Prime Minister. Putin appears ready to expand the authority of that position significantly so who’s really going to be in charge of the Russian government? This analyst says it’s not clear authority will actually transfer to Medvedev. in other words Putin might be freeing himself up to serve the country as Prime Minister. Medvedev said today he will tackle corruption and extend civil rights and economic freedoms. This analyst has his doubts about that, especially on civil rights. He’s betting Medvedev won’t be very different. He says Medvedev might be president now, but Putin will still be the King of Russia. One thing Putin did was emphasize Russian traditions that worked opposite of US foreign policy aims.