Medvedev Has Matured After One Year in Office

	To Our Readers
	The Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory's address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to (7-495) 232-6529, by e-mail to [email protected], or by post. The Moscow Times reserves the right to edit letters. Email the Opinion Page Editor

The first year of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency has been no pleasure cruise for the nation and its leader. The luck that had accompanied Russia for the previous eight years under President Vladimir Putin ran out during Medvedev's first months in power. Look at the main albatrosses around Medvedev's neck: the Georgia war, the stock market crash, the largest contraction in gross domestic product since 1998, a deep ruble devaluation, a 10 percent GDP budget deficit after almost a decade of large surpluses and a rapidly depleting stabilization fund.

The platform on which he was elected -- Putin's Plan -- has been made irrelevant by the global economic crisis that has set Russia back by five to seven years.

His major foreign policy initiatives were the plans for a new security architecture in Europe, the reform of the international financial system and the proposal on energy security. But since these ideas were sketchy in detail and poorly prepared, they made Medvedev look like another "Kremlin dreamer" who proposes grand visions without bothering to think about their implementation.

Since Putin remained as a dominant political force, Medvedev had to deal on a daily basis with skepticism regarding his authority: Is Medvedev really running the country or is he just a figurehead for Putin?

Medvedev now has to reboot his presidency with a new agenda if he wants to make his positive mark on the country's trajectory. To his credit, he has moved in the right direction by focusing on issues that would make a long-term impact on Russian statehood, such as combating corruption, increasing public accountability of senior government officials, empowering the judicial system and gradually increasing the scope of political debate by reaching out to critics of the regime who had been ostracized and ignored under Putin.

Moreover, Medvedev is defining his own political style and sharpening his communications skills. The successful war with Georgia and unilateral recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia proved Medvedev's toughness, while his calm and reassuring manner during the worst months of the crisis helped steady the nation's nerves. He is now more self-confident and resolute and projects himself as a man with a mission.

It would be a stretch to portray Medvedev as Russia's Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but in the times of serious hardship he may yet be the leader the country needs most.

Vladimir Frolov is president of LEFF Group, a government-relations and PR company.