I remember when I was in Russia and Medvedev was "In charge" and I taught a wealthy business owner who had his portrait on his wall. This business owner was a proud member of Edinya Rossiya/United Russia political party. He told me "Medvedev is not Putin! He is his own man, a reformer. He is doing great things. Don't worry about Putin, Medvedev is the future."

After the next election when the two swapped back and said they were just joking about their rivalry and this had been the plan all along, this business owner and so many others were embarassed and disappointed that they had been fooled-and that Medvedev wasn't how own man afterall, just a puppet. Him rising up as a war -hawk now is certainly a perculiar development.