From Russia to Russia with love

There was a Financial Times interview with Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev published March 24. The interview is interesting and enlightening in many ways, as the president-elect sets forth a couple of key policy goals for the next few years. However, what I found most revealing was the extent of Dmitry Medvedev’s man-crush on Vladimir Putin. The interviewer asks a couple of questions about working with Putin, and Medvedev’s answers are downright fawning. Example:

FT: Let’s talk about foreign affairs. Is Mr Putin right that the west, the world, will find you, in his words, no easier to deal with?

DM: Of course he’s right. You asked whether he is right or not and he’s right.

FT: He’s right on most things?

DM: Of course. He is an experienced and effective leader of the country.

(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f40629a8-f9ba-11dc-9b7c-000077b07658.html)

Then he added, “And I love him with the burning passion of a thousand suns!” There are other parts of the interview, too, where Medvedev heaps praise on his boss. While the interview left unclear the exact roles that will be played by each man in the coming administration, it made quite clear DM *hearts* VP, and I don’t think I have to spell out for you what to expect if they were ever found in a tree together.

Russian train bombing

I can’t decide if the train bombing in Russia is something I should worry about. It seems like a very amateur attempt, but it was on a major transportation line. My wife may be headed to Moscow for a friend’s wedding in a month, and these sorts of things naturally make me nervous about travel there. Attacks like this in themselves are quite frightening, but what makes them worse in my mind is the lackadaisical response of Russian officials. I know that Americans, myself included, post-9/11 are very concerned with transportation security, perhaps overly so, and this skews my opinion. Regardless, the noticeable lack of security on trains, subways, and airports in Russia even in the wake of attacks like this one is worrying. Russians often like to ignore bad things, especially things that reflect poorly on the situation of their country. Like many people, they are proud of their country, but in my opinion are unusually sensitive about negativity towards Russia and Russians. There are a number of reasons for this, and I won’t go into them as they really deserve a separate discussion. When it comes to security, pride should not be an issue. There should be accurate reporting of the incident (this is rare in Russia generally and practically non-existent as regards negative events) and appropriate new security measures implemented to prevent similar attacks. I did not witness either of these two responses when the Moscow subway was bombed in 2003 and I do not expect it to happen here. As Russian strength grows and the country increases its political role in the region, it is going to attract more enemies and incidents such as this will become more frequent. It will make me nervous about traveling there if there isn’t a strong reaction to this train bombing, even if there were no casualties; there were casualties in previous attacks and there will be more in the future. This most recent attack should serve as a warning that better security is needed in Russia generally, and on its transportation specifically.