Teaching Comparative

Putin and Medvedev

Chris Kuberski in Chicago pointed out that Foreign Policy magazine has published a gallery of 9 photographs of Putin and Medvedev with informative captions.  The pictures were taken over the past couple years, and the captions describe the relationship between the two. The captions also raise questions about the future of the relationship.

He asked his students to decide whether the descriptions mentioned in the captions were normative or empirical. I suggested that he could ask his students to create a timeline of the Medvedev-Putin relationship and identify the issues that might arise between them (both of which would require a bit more research).

Check it out, and if you're not going to be teaching about Russia for awhile, bookmark the site.

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And to follow up on all the photographs, The Economist offers more analysis.

Behind the golden doors

SOMETIMES you have to admire the candour of Russian leaders. Whereas Kremlinologists love conspiracy theories, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, and Vladimir Putin, its prime minister, tell things how they are.

On September 10th Mr Medvedev published a manifesto on gazeta.ru, a Russian website, highlighting Russia’s failings. He wrote of a primitive, oil-dependent economy, weak democracy, a shrinking population, an explosive north Caucasus and all-pervasive corruption. His critics would not disagree with this stark diagnosis, even if he offered few answers. A day later Mr Putin told the visiting Valdai club of foreign journalists and academics that he and Mr Medvedev would decide between themselves who is going to be president when Mr Medvedev’s first term expires in 2012 (see article). Most Russians already assumed as much...

Mr Medvedev’s article evoked memories of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika speeches in the 1980s; he said this week that what went wrong with Mr Gorbachev was that he began but failed to complete his reforms. Mr Medvedev, however, has not ever started...

Mr Medvedev’s article and Mr Putin’s comments on 2012 may reflect a tension between the two men and their teams that has brought Russia into a state of inactivity caused by competing forces...

In the past few months some of Mr Medvedev’s supporters have defected to Mr Putin’s camp, arguing that modernisation is possible under the prime minister’s leadership. Others, such as Gleb Pavlovsky, a weathered Kremlin spin-doctor, have been trumpeting Mr Medvedev’s emergence as an independent and powerful leader...

Mr Putin’s words about 2012 undermine Mr Medvedev, making him a lame duck 30 months before his term runs out. Mr Medvedev has spent most of his career as Mr Putin’s subordinate. It was his loyalty, not his independence, that qualified him for the top job. As president he has largely followed Mr Putin’s policies, including in last year’s war with Georgia...

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Do you know What You Need to Know?

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Labels: leadership, politics, Russia

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:30 AM