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Medvedev: The man who kept the seat of power warm for Putin
His four years as president are four days from an end. But why did Dmitry Medvedev fail to transcend his mentor and become a Russian figurehead in his own right?
Previous inhabitants of the Kremlin, whether it be Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin or Vladimir Putin, have tended to inspire both awe and fear. Even with Boris Yeltsin in the late, vodka-infused years, there remained an aura of residual respect for someone who was essentially the most powerful person in the biggest country in the world. But with four days left of his four-year tenure as President, Dmitry Medvedev evokes rather different emotions in his citizens.
The state-controlled news television still gives staid accounts of the President chairing cabinet meetings and meeting the people. But, online, a sphere that the iPad-toting Mr Medvedev himself has been keen to champion, it is a different story: Mr Medvedev is met by many Russians with indifference at best, if not outright derision. On Twitter, users refer to him with the hashtag "the pitiful one".
Mr Medvedev, a diminutive lawyer who has known Vladimir Putin for two decades, was carefully manoeuvred into the Kremlin by Mr Putin in 2008, when the latter had to step aside due to a constitutional ban on serving more than two consecutive terms. Throughout his rule, the majority of people have assumed he was a seat-warmer for Mr Putin, who as Prime Minister still appeared to be calling the shots.
For a while, Kremlinologists looked hard for signs of cracks appearing in the ruling "tandem"; for disagreements between the two men and signs Mr Medvedev might be ready to escape his mentor's shackles and strike out on his own. There was talk that if he won a second term as President, he might be able to enact real reform. Then, last September, it was announced that Mr Putin was coming back after all. Mr Medvedev, apparently, had been a lame duck all along. The quiet giggling at his awkward attempts to emulate Mr Putin's televised stunts and tough talking ended in a sense of disappointment.
Even his wardrobe choices now provoke derision. The ruling duo attended this week's May Day parade together, and while Mr Putin wore a sombre black trenchcoat, Mr Medvedev skipped along in a tight-fitting double-breasted white jacket that came to just above the knee. It looked like the fashion choice one might expect from someone riding a bicycle in Shoreditch, rather than the attire of a President of a nuclear power at a labour march. Within hours, the Russian blogosphere went into overdrive at the President's failed attempt to look cool. A photo went viral of Mr Medvedev in the coat juxtaposed with a photo of supermodel Kate Moss in a similar number.
One of the most popular satirical digs at the Russian President has been on Twitter. Mr Medvedev set up his Twitter account during a visit to the company's headquarters in San Francisco in 2010. He soon began tweeting both official state business and his personal thoughts, which were meant to burnish his image as a modernising President.