between insults and provocations, what is Dmitri Medvedev, the former liberal figure who has become a Kremlin hawk, playing at?

Admit it: Dmitry Medvedev is a creative man. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the former Russian president has multiplied shock statements on international news, which has earned him the attention of the media around the world. Perhaps because his style hardly suits a former tenant of the Kremlin. As when he compares the international arrest warrant issued against Vladimir Putin to “toilet paper”. Or when he describes the leaders of the G7 as“idiots”quips on a “fourth reich” Western countries, threatens to drop a nuclear bomb on London or to hit the International Criminal Court with a hypersonic missile. As for Poland, he considers it a “evil dog” ready to “swallow leftovers” from Ukraine.

His threats are most often directed against “crazy Nazi drug addicts” and the “cockroaches” in power in Ukraine, a “Nazi regime” to slay. The former tenant of the Kremlin sometimes embellishes his logorrhea with images, as when he publishes on Telegram a montage* presenting Volodymyr Zelensky in the guise of Adolf Hitler. On occasion, Dmitri Medvedev also pours into the mystical vocabulary. “The goal is to stop the supreme ruler of hell, whatever name he uses – Satan, Lucifer or Iblis”he launched in the fall, when the theme of “desatanization” from Ukraine was in vogue.

Before the start of the war, he was already accusing the Ukrainian leaders of being “weak people who only want to line their pockets”in the newspaper Kommersant*. Shortly after the start of the invasion, he offered himself a new playground by creating his Telegram channel. More than a million people now subscribe to the publications of “Dimon”, which has gradually established itself as one “of the rudest and most radical politicians in Russia”, in the words* of freelance journalist Ivan Davydov, in early November. Five months earlier, the person concerned had justified* his vulgar outbursts addressed to the power of kyiv.

“The answer is that I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want Russia dead. As long as I live, I will do anything to make them disappear.”

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council

on Telegram

Dmitry Medvedev didn’t always have the wings of a hawk. On the contrary, he has long been seen as a moderate political figure, as opposed to the hard-line siloviki military or security services.

Heir to a liberal movement that fizzled out

University weightlifting champion, passionate about photography, this former law professor and jurist met Vladimir Putin in the 1990s, in the entourage of Anatoly Sobchak, mayor of Leningrad (which reverted to Saint Petersburg a few months later). Dmitri Medvedev became campaign manager for the future head of state during the 2000 presidential election, then his chief of staff. At that time, he also joined the supervisory board of the powerful company Gazprom.

“His rhetoric, since the start of the war in Ukraine, is surprisingly violent, because it is the opposite of the character who met Bill Gates and was well regarded by Western elites.”

Olga Gille-Belova, lecturer in contemporary Russian civilization at the University of Bordeaux

at franceinfo

In 2008, Vladimir Putin is due to hand over after two successive terms at the head of Russia. Dmitri Medvedev takes over, without much room for maneuver. “It carries the heritage of a liberal economic current in decline, but which still exists”, emphasizes Olga Gille-Belova, lecturer in contemporary Russian civilization at the University of Bordeaux. The Russian president then wants “reset” relations with the United States of Barack Obama and praises the virtues of a “modernization”based on technological innovation. “He is also trying to propose some measures of political liberalization, and the major demonstrations of 2011 and 2012 are also blamed on him, as an undesirable effect of his speech.

At that time, Dmitry Medvedev adored his iPhone offered by Bill Gates, visited the premises of Twitter and confided his youthful love for the groups Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. But Russian modernization remains largely authoritarian, decided by the elites. A joke was circulating then: Medvedev gets into a nice car, very happy, then ends up asking where the steering wheel is. He is told that it is in reliable hands”, says researcher Cécile Vaissié, professor at the University of Rennes. After the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, Dmitri Medvedev is appointed head of government, and finds a role of straw man.

“A caricature of what has become of Russia”

In 2017, the foundation of the opponent Alexeï Navalny reveals its immense real estate heritage, in an investigation into the corruption of the elites. “He had denied the accusations, but had to keep a low profile after these revelations”, which had provoked demonstrations in several cities of the country. A small duck was brandished there, in reference to the pond installed in one of its opulent residences. “Those years, he lost what was left of his credibility”analyzes Cécile Vaissié. Lots of photos* and videos were circulating online ridiculing him.” To make matters worse, he was caught sleeping several times, during ceremonies and official speeches.

Three years later, Dmitry Medvedev left the White House in Moscow, the residence of the Prime Minister and seat of the Russian government. “Some interpreted his resignation as the end of his political life, and he seemed to have no more weight.”notes Olga Gille-Belova.

Still at the head of the United Russia party, Dmitry Medvedev then took the vice-presidency of the Security Council, a position created for him. Its scope is rather vague, especially since the secretary Nikolai Patrushev firmly holds the reins of the advisory council. “It is very difficult to know the political role of Dmitry Medvedev todaycontinues the researcher, but he is still present in Vladimir Putin’s entourage.”

Witness his appointment to head a military-industrial commission at the end of December. Dmitri Medvedev’s mission is to boost the production of armaments. Which he takes very seriously. At the end of March, in a meeting, he started reading a telegram written by… Joseph Stalin*. In 1941, the dictator threatened the director of a factory to supply enough parts for the tanks, promising to “crush him like a criminal” in case of failure.

Dmitry Medvedev asks the audience “to remember the words of the Generalissimo” and be inspired by it. Atmosphere around the table… “During his youth, at the time of Perestroika, I don’t think he imagined quoting Stalin in an official context”summarizes Cécile Vaissié. “It’s almost a caricature of what Russia has become.”