Dmitry Medvedevs Russia still feels the cold hand of Vladimir Putin

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow Published: 6:00AM GMT 07 March 2010

Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. Photo: AP

Emboldened by what he thought was the new suggestion of honesty unconditional Russia, Major Alexei Dymovsky motionless to blow the alarm on troops crime in his cheap fiefdom on the Black Sea coast.

The dejected detective, from the exploding pier of Novorossiysk, pennyless his overpower in a You Tube promote that became an internet sensation, garnering well over a million hits.

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Four months later, he competence be wishing he had kept quiet. He is right away grieving in prison after being sacked and indicted of fraud, whilst a human rights romantic who took up his cause, Vadim Karastelyov, can hardly mount after dual men stabbed him with sensory wooden stakes outward his prosaic last Saturday.

Concerns about the approach Mr Dymovksy was silenced, though, go well over the elementary have a difference of either troops in Novorossiysk can go on to take bribes and support the trusting with impunity, as he had claimed. It has additionally lifted unfortunate questions about the promises of Russia"s president, Dmitry Medvedev, to finish the creeping authoritarianism brought in by his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, and chaperon in a renewed epoch of freedom.

"What is function right away is illusory," pronounced Mr Karastelyov, vocalization to the Sundayafter his liberate from sanatorium last week. "Medvedev does not have the domestic weight to have the required changes. There is a outrageous cove in between what he is observant and reality. We have hopes but no illusions."

Even though he was handpicked for the pursuit by Mr Putin, a man indicted of slaying the pell-mell but colourful democracy that Russia quickly enjoyed in the 1990s, Mr Medvedev was discerning to expel himself as a magnanimous reformer when he came to energy in 2008. His promises to quarrel crime and revive the order of law were hailed as a acquire shift from the Putin epoch - not slightest in Britain, where the Litvinenko poisoning box showed a Russia lurching behind to Soviet habits. Hopes that the new man would be magnanimous and pro-Western were lifted serve by the actuality he was a counsel by training, not a spy, and his matey avowal that he was a fan of British complicated steel rope Deep Purple.

Yet now, half-way in to his 4 year term, the magnanimous newspapers, human rights groups and NGOs that suffered augmenting harrasssment during Mr Putin"s power contend small has changed. Mr Medvedev competence well have laid open Josef Stalin and oral of the need for domestic foe and modernisation. But the problem, contend those who sincerely wish to hold him, is that he is all speak and small action.

"We have not since up on him yet, and we should give him the good of the doubt," says Tanya Lokshina, of the Moscow bend of Human Rights Watch. "But utterly a bit of time has upheld and so far there has been small but tongue and some-more rhetoric."

Mr Medvedev does exaggerate a little reforms to his credit. He has transposed a purchase of informal governors, and dismissed a slew of tip troops and troops officers. However, he additionally appears to have left out of his approach to impersonate the walk, speak and even skirt clarity of his mentor, Mr Putin, call a little critics to call him "Putin"s younger brother". Kremlin-watchers additionally note that whilst Mr Putin addresses Mr Medvedev utilizing the infrequent form of you in Russian or "ty," Mr Medvedev employs the some-more thoughtful and grave "vy" when articulate to Mr Putin, underlining his youth purpose in the partnership. Kremlin picture makers seems to equivocate putting Mr Medvedev up for the kind of macho print opportunities deemed befitting for Mr Putin, who was this week graphic on horseback in snow-bound Siberia.

"Medvedev is warmer and sunnier," pronounced one former comparison US comprehension official. "But he does not wish to shift things that much. He believes in what competence be called "venture liberalism" - perplexing out assorted things, but not unequivocally removing serious."

Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of former Soviet personality Nikita Khrushchev, describes Mr Medvedev"s pursuit in the Kremlin in rather less graceful terms. His role, as she sees it, is not so majority as trainer but as initial lady.

"The contented masquerade is stoical of Russia"s tiny president, Dmitry Medvedev, whose job, similar to that of America"s initial lady, is to keep up appearances," she said. "And the coming that needs the majority upkeep is that of a complicated and courteous Russia."

Among those who are disappointed, but not surprised, by the Medvedev lane jot down is Yevgeny Ikhlov, an consultant at the "For Human Rights" vigour group, that is concerned in the box of Major Dymovsky, the troops whistleblower. He claims there was a tip agreement, hermetic during Vladimir Putin"s 2000-2008 presidency, that authorised the troops and the FSB security use to do as they greatfully in lapse for their ardent faithfulness to the regime.

"The complement senses debility in Medvedev and crushes any one who dares to cocktail their head on tip of the parapet," pronounced Mr Ikhlov. "Medvedev gave people goal and combined a opposite ambience in multitude but he is not clever sufficient to mangle the phonetic agreement with the law coercion agencies."

Mr Medvedev"s aides, who are wakeful of the perestroika expectations that their trainer essentially generated, urge patience. "Such changes do not occur quickly," says one confidant close to the Kremlin. "You cannot shift the incident only similar to that." Russia, it is argued, is the largest nation in the world, and moves similar to a super tanker.

Yet with whistleblowers similar to Major Dymovsky still noticed essentially as troublemakers, analysts who thought the main subject would be quite the speed of Medvedev"s reforms are right away introspective alternative questions instead. Is he his own man or only Mr Putin"s creature? And does he unequivocally hold in reform, as the ardent character of most of his speeches competence suggest, or is he only a tumble man whose pursuit is to defuse flourishing amicable tragedy at a time of monetary stress? With a presidential choosing in 2012 approaching, most sceptics hold that Mr Medvedev is merely a proxy tie and that Mr Putin, who is right away budding minister, is scheming to take his old pursuit behind at the really tip of Russian politics.

"Medvedev is keeping the chair warm," says one seasoned Russia viewer who continually interacts with the Kremlin. "You need to be some-more than a good chairman to run a place similar to Russia."