Who’s the Boss Now?

It's been a year since Dmitry Medvedev solemnly strode through the Kremlin along a carpet runner and took the oath of office to become the third president of Russia. He began his term vigorously, emphasizing that he had his own, softer style than predecessor Vladimir Putin while initiating judicial reforms and a campaign against corruption. Last July, he even declared that businesses should not be harassed after Putin undermined the stock market with an angry tirade at the metallurgical company Mechel.

But then the war with Georgia occurred, the Russian economy tipped downhill, and political scientists concluded that Medvedev's agenda had devolved into a fiasco. The new president seemed to drop from sight, and Putin came back to the forefront of Russian politics. Of course, Putin had never actually left the stage. After eight years as president, he simply took over as prime minister when Medvedev assumed office. And when the Duma (the Russian Parliament) overwhelmingly amended the Constitution in December allowing for an extension to presidential terms, it became clear that the real power still belonged to Putin-and would continue to do so for a long time to come. Little surprise then, that when pollsters asked Russians to identify the top person in the country, they answered that it was the prime minister.

This fact was only underscored in early January, when the Russian company Gazprom shut off the last valve in the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, cutting off several European countries from their primary supply of natural gas. The European Union responded with fury, and it was Putin who explained to journalists the next day that he "doesn't bargain with gas, or cucumbers, or lard, or anything else." The decision to shut down the flow of gas, it was clear, was not Medvedev's to make. Indeed, NEWSWEEK has learned that Medvedev's first comment on the crisis was prepared by the office of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.

The gas conflict revived the question that officials had already been asking for months: If Putin, as prime minister, determined foreign policy, controlled regional aid and financial resources and crafted Constitutional change, then what decisions did Medvedev make? The answer, according to NEWSWEEK's sources, is that Medvedev has chosen initiatives over decisions.

It was Medvedev, says a source close to the Kremlin, who secured the resignation of Ingush president Murat Zyazikov, when the conflict in Ingushetia [the tiny Russian republic bordering troubled Chechnya] worsened in October. Putin himself would not have ousted Zyazikov; he would have felt that the pressure on him was enough to make the point. And it was Medvedev, say various sources, who proposed replacing, a string of long-serving regional governors. Ultimately only one of the governors left, but only because other authorities were afraid of removing the rest. And while Medvedev did clear candidacies for the gubernatorial replacements with Putin, they would not have emerged without Medvedev's prompting, says political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin.

Other Medvedev efforts have had mixed results. His anti-corruption package reached the Duma in severely truncated form, and his plan to publicize the incomes of top Russian officials was defeated. (The wealthiest person in the government proved to be First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov—or rather, his wife—even though Shuvalov is not among the top ten in the Moscow government building known as the White House in terms of income, says a government source.) In foreign policy Medvedev has been even less of a factor, making no personal decisions aside from last summer's sign-off on the G8 statement on Zimbabwe. There wasn't much point as it turned out: a day later Moscow blocked sanctions against the southern African country in the U.N. Security Council.

Still, a dearth of decision does not mean a dearth of ambition. Officials say that Medvedev, undeterred by the initial failure of his agenda, is trying again. And this time, he's doing it without support from the top.