Can Medvedev Create Putin-Style Personality Cult?
By Chloe Arnold MOSCOW — He may have been elected less than a week ago, but already photographs and paraphernalia relating to President-elect Dmitry Medvedev are up for sale on the Internet and at popular markets in Moscow. For a staggering 20,000 rubles ($800), you can get a meter-high framed photograph of Russia’s next president. Or for the more modest sum of 350 rubles, you can pick up a 10-piece Medvedev matrioshka doll. “You can buy 10-piece dolls, five-piece dolls. Inside are all our former leaders,” says Irma, who sells tourist trinkets at the Izmailovsky Park market in northern Moscow. “We haven’t had them long. We ordered them just a week ago. They were ready for us literally on March 2.” Like most people in Russia, Irma was under no illusions about who would win the March 2 presidential election. With a saleswoman’s nous, a week before the vote she ordered 20 matrioshka dolls bearing the smiling face of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who predictably sailed thro
