He used to be seen as a beacon of liberal hope, now he is threatening nuclear war, spreading conspiracy theories and mocking cynicism. Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev’s radicalization is even more peculiar than Vladimir Putin’s.
Voldymyr Zelenskyy likes to tell the anecdote that Dmitry Medvedev called him after a show and said: “I really liked it. But we don’t allow that kind of thing.” Zelenskyy said that one of his troops even had a Russian passport. “Then it’s good that he’s here,” said Medvedev. Mild in tone, but unmistakable in substance, this encounter took place star-Reporter Bettina Sengling tells in her Selenskyj portrait. Back then, one, Zelensky, was still the number one comedian in Ukraine and the other, Medvedev, was number one in the Kremlin. In the meantime, one is the Ukrainian president and the other, formerly Biedermann, agitators of imperialist Russia.
Attacks, people fleeing, nuclear power plants and the proportion of gas: graphics on the conflict in Ukraine
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Dmitry Medvedev is now 56 years old, but there can be no talk of mild old age or even a diplomatic comment. Especially since Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine, the choice of words by the doctor of law has become increasingly extreme. He declared Finland and Sweden to be “official opponents of Russia” because of their interest in NATO membership. Which almost seems polite in view of the threats that Medvedev, who currently holds the position of “Vice Secretary of the Russian Security Council,” recently unleashed. A few samples:
Isolated freaks calling themselves the ‘Ukrainian government’ say they plan to beat a confession out of Viktor Medvedchuk, sentence him ‘quickly and fairly’ and then exchange them for prisoners.
(In response to the arrest before Easter of Ukrainian Putin confidante Medvedchuk accused of high treason)
There is a conspiracy, a “primitive game,” to destroy Russia. It means Russia must be humiliated, restricted, crushed, divided and destroyed… (Yet) A post-Putin world would result in an unstable leadership in Moscow that over have a maximum number of nuclear weapons aimed at targets in the United States and Europe.
(On alleged US plans to bring about regime change in Moscow)
Now the interests of the citizens of Poland have been sacrificed to the Russophobia of these mediocre politicians and their puppeteers from across the ocean with clear signs of senile madness.
(From a pamphlet titled “About Poland”. The “puppeteer” refers to US President Joe Biden)
Well then, welcome to a new world where Europeans will soon be paying 2,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
(In response to the announcement that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would not go online)
These difficult tasks cannot be accomplished in a hurry. It would not be surprising if Ukraine suffered the same fate as the Third Reich.
(On the Russian war aim to “denazify and demilitarize” Ukraine)
It will be cheaper for everyone. And then in the end we will just face each other with guns at the ready.
(On the expulsion of 150 Russian diplomats from various EU countries)
The ruthless fist thrower
A sparsely worded threat of nuclear war, conspiracy theories and sneering cynicism: Dmitry Medvedev’s transformation from a once conscientious liberal worker in the Kremlin to a ruthless fist-wielder seems even stranger than Vladimir Putin’s radicalization. Presumably, however, the two went the way to the right wing together, just as they have walked side by side for the past 30 years. Medvedev, the middle-class kid, and Putin, the working-class kid, both come from St. Petersburg and started their careers together there, which ultimately led them to the Moscow Kremlin. From where they don’t want to leave anytime soon.
When Vladimir Putin had to resign as Russian President after two terms in 2008, Dmitry Medvedev, then Deputy Prime Minister, took over the post. Putin moved back to second place and became head of government. The new man was seen as liberal, and many hoped that Russia would finally become more modern and open. But they were disappointed, Medvedev remained pale. His campaign against Georgia in 2008 cost him international reputation, domestically he was “just the smiling facade of the regime,” as the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” wrote. In 2012 he swapped posts back with Putin.
Medvedev, Putin’s whipping boy
Putin’s faithful companion then served as prime minister for eight years, and his main task was to watch over the president’s back. As head of government, he took responsibility for almost all of Putin’s policy mistakes, with the result that everyone loves the president, but nobody loves Medvedev. His rhetorical glitches were an added burden. In 2016, for example, he instructed a teacher who wanted to know why educators in Russia received only half the salary of a police officer: “The teaching profession is a calling. If you want to earn money, you should go into business.”
The opposition leader Alexander Navalny, who is now in permanent office, raised serious allegations of corruption against Medvedev in 2017: The head of government, who once stood up to fight corruption, is one of “the richest and most corrupt politicians in Russia”. Navalny presented material according to which Medvedev was the secret owner of an empire of luxurious properties at home and abroad, vineyards and yachts worth the equivalent of one billion euros. Prime Minister’s comment: “I will not comment on the absolutely mendacious product of political crooks.”
In January 2020, Medvedev resigned as Prime Minister and was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council on the same day. A clear demotion. Nevertheless, he is still part of Putin’s inner circle, which is said to have shrunk significantly during the corona pandemic. At his new post, Medvedev was silent for a long time. But with the preparations for war, the role apparently fell to him of barking at the West and intimidating it with threats of escalation. “He repeats Putin’s rhetoric and exaggerates it with a view to a possible use of nuclear weapons,” said the political scientist Gwendolyn Sasse the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”.
Model fascist philosopher
However, some statements suggest that Medvedev has become a supporter of a fascist, Greater Russian ideology. He recently equated the fate of Ukraine with that of Nazi Germany. “This is the way for such a Ukraine,” but the collapse could open the way for “an open Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” The latter is exactly the choice of words of the fascist philosopher Alexander Dugin, who propagates a “Eurasian continental empire” led by Russia. “Every step we have taken so far, crushing the Chechen separatists, liberating South Ossetia and Abkhazia and now Crimea, is a step towards the European revolution,” he wrote in 2014.
Dugin, on the other hand, bases his thinking on the Russian Hitler supporter Ivan Ilyin, who in the 1930s only mentioned the Ukraine in quotation marks. Vladimir Putin is increasingly using his writings in his speeches. His loyal partner Dmitry Medvedev recently wrote an op-ed in the state news agency Ria Novosti, calling for generations-long re-education under Russian control. “Denazification will inevitably also mean de-Ukrainization,” said Medvedev.
Sources: DPA, AFP, “Stock exchanges newspaper“, The New Zurich Times“Daily Mirror”, “Handelsblatt“, “daily sheet“