Medvedev's Rhetoric

He's talking up liberalism and reform, but which emerging leader doesn't? It's nice that he's not merely repeating Putin's lines of defiance, but a great deal of skepticism is still in order.

“Medvedev in this speech and in previous speeches has been enunciating liberal themes, and that’s encouraging,” said Cliff Kupchan, a director at the Eurasia Group, a global risk consulting firm based in Washington and New York.

“But we have to remember that this entire campaign is being run by Putin, and Putinism — broadly meaning a large state role in the economy and an assertive foreign policy — is not going to change soon, because Putin is not going to leave the scene.”