The column is led by Nikolay Zubov

The Guardian

London, Great Britain

It's been a year since Dmitry Medvedev, a 43-year-old former lawyer from St. Petersburg and fan of the aging rock musicians Deep Purple, became president of Russia.

Optimists believe that Medvedev, who comes from a younger generation than Putin and did not work in the KGB, is a true reformer. Over time, they say, he will end the worst manifestations of Putinism and lead Russia down a less authoritarian path. Moreover, they add, the president's progressive statements and meetings with civil rights organizations represent attempts to remake the failing Putin-era social contract of "more money, less freedom."

However, skeptics point out what Medvedev actually did. The list is small. The most significant reform was the extension of the presidential term from four to six years, which could allow Putin to return to power in 2012. (In this scenario, Putin would then remain in office for two terms, until 2024, and would eventually be voted out like Brezhnev.) Last August, Medvedev signed an agreement with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to end the war in Georgia and withdraw Russian troops to the positions they occupied before the conflict began. The troops, however, never left and are now based on the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

On the international stage, Medvedev is a rather lonely figure, largely because his Western partners know that Putin remains the real arbiter of Russian politics. And in his own country, Medvedev is increasingly at risk of turning into a clown, since most of his statements have nothing to do with reality. In his interview with Novaya Gazeta, he praised the recent mayoral campaign in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, calling it “a full-fledged political struggle.” And the local pro-Kremlin administration, in order to lead its candidate to victory, falsified the election results: they brought thousands of soldiers, teachers and sanatorium workers to the city so that they would vote in advance. Such political technologies were often used during the Putin years."

AFP

Paris, France

"Despite the crisis, dogs in Russia are dressed in fashion

Dresses, sweaters, mink coats and perfumes. In Russia, Yorkies and Chihuahuas follow fashion trends. Despite the economic crisis, fashion designers and manufacturers of dog accessories do not lack clients.

Charly dog salon is located in the very center of Moscow. It offers a whole range of products: shampoos and spa masks, leashes decorated with Swarovski crystals, strollers, boots and even backpacks. The choice of clothes in which you can dress your pet is wide: from evening dresses to tracksuits with eccentric accessories. And even though their prices are comparable to those of human ready-to-wear, owners spare no expense to pamper their little companions. “On weekends we serve 20 clients a day. Most of them belong to the middle class,” says co-owner of the salon, pretty long-haired brunette Edita Lis. “We can not only cut your dog’s hair, but also give her a manicure, dye her the color you like, or braid her hair,” says Charly salon hairdresser Natalya Lavrentieva.

Russian fashion designer Svetlana Abramova began her career by designing women's clothing. However, in 2001, she switched to dog fashion, starting to sew clothes for her Chihuahua named Bonya. Quite quickly, Svetlana turned her hobby into a business. Today, in Moscow restaurants, no one is shocked by the appearance of a young woman in a luxurious outfit with an equally luxuriously dressed Yorkie. However, the crisis brought some changes to the style. “Now we often sew clothes in a casual style, which are more convenient for everyday life and are not so chic. Our clothes have become more affordable in terms of price, but remain elegant and fashionable,” says Nail Abrarov, marketing director of Very Stylish Dog, and adds: “ Dogs quickly get used to clothing that protects them from cold and dirt, and owners who treat dogs like children do not want their pets to get sick."

Frankfurter Rundschau

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

"Orthodox logic

Russia is full of strange things. Nowhere have people from the Komsomol, with a good education, gotten rich so quickly thanks to the consistent application of capitalist methods of robbery. And almost nowhere did these new capitalists become beggars again because of capitalism.

Let's say there is an exaggeration in the last sentence. Oleg Deripaska is still rich - not everyone has $5 billion in his account. True, he also has debts: poor Oleg Deripaska can no longer afford to buy an Opel. Perhaps he simply lost at poker - but gambling is prohibited in Russia. There is no blessing on them. And Lenin does not have this blessing, quite the contrary. Priest Dmitry Smirnov believes that Lenin should have been burned on April 22, 1870, immediately after his birth. And although Smirnov, as a priest, is against cremation, he proposes to take the mummy out of the Mausoleum in Moscow and burn it in the Arctic, and scatter the ashes with the wind towards the West. This Orthodox Christian heads the Moscow Patriarchate department for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies, which makes one wonder: is he connected with law enforcement agencies? This is quite possible, because the church supports the state unusually strongly in everything. Just like in Stalin's times. However, law enforcement agencies and rulers who came from this environment, such as Putin, believe that such support is not so bad.

But Stalin was Lenin’s best student, wasn’t he? This Orthodox logic comes from the same set of oddities as the fact that Putin, on the one hand, considers the collapse of the USSR the greatest catastrophe of the last century, and on the other hand, he is a pure democrat. In addition, he honors the last king as a saint, just as the church does. Finally, he rules as president, although his name is not Medvedev."

“Medvedev is a fake reformer”