A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to Its Legacy

THE MEDVEDEV INTERLUDE

The 1993 constitution limited the president to two four-year terms. Putin's second term ended in 2008. How Putin dealt with this problem was characteristic of the political system that he had created: he observed the letter of the law without paying attention to its spirit. He needed to have a new president in order to demonstrate his observance of the constitution, but at the same time he was determined to be able to retain his power. He chose an old associate from his Leningrad days to run for the office while implicitly understanding that he himself would remain supreme master.

That associate was Dmitrii Anatolevich Medvedev. Medvedev was born in 1965, that is, he was considerably younger than Putin. He came from an intellectual family and was a much better-educated man than his sponsor. Like Putin, he attended Leningrad University Law School and had a genuine scholarly interest in the law. Unlike Putin, however, he had no Soviet career; he could not be regarded as a Soviet man. He had neither the opportunity to join the party nor the chance to acquire a reputation as a prominent dissident. He came to intellectual maturity at a time when liberalism and thoughts of political and economic freedoms were in the ascendant. After defending his dissertation, he became a docent at the university and taught Roman law there until 1999. Like Putin, he worked in the administration of Mayor Sobchak and in this capacity got to know the former. From the very beginning of his political career, Medvedev worked together with Putin, and they came to be personally close. Given their different backgrounds it is remarkable that they had managed to work well together through many decades. As Putin rose in the hierarchy in Moscow, he brought his younger colleague, his protégé, to the capital. In 2000 Medvedev managed Putin's campaign for the presidency. As a reward, Putin appointed him chairman of Gazprom's board of directors. Medvedev continued to serve in this most important and profitable segment of the economy. In 2003 he became chief of staff to the president and in 2005 became first deputy prime minister.