In today's #vatnik soup,I'll discuss a man who's small in every sense. He's the ex-president of Russia,Dmitry Medvedev.He's currently working as the deputy chairman of the Security Council, but he's best known for his aggressive social media behavior and sucking up to Putin. 1/12
During his presidency, Dmitry was doing a lot of changes and signaled about a possibility of a more liberal Russia.
Naturally, this was mostly a ruse and his presidency was only granted to him by Putin so that he could be re-elected later on.
2/12
For the 2008 presidential election, everyone expected Putin to support a silovik candidate such as Viktor Zubkov or Sergei Ivanov, but to everyone's surprise he introduced Medvedev as his preferred successor. Putin's endorsement caused Dmitry's popularity to skyrocket.
3/12
Putin's endorsement could've been due to two reasons: 1) He was just as short as Putin,and 2) he was a weak candidate who wouldn't try to do a power grab later when Putin signed up for re-election.
After he became the president, Medvedev appointed Putin as the Prime Minister.4/12
Professor Daniel Treisman has argued that Putin was ready to withdraw to the background, but the 2008 financial crisis and the South Ossetia War changed his mind. Dmitry called the latter absurdly an "Operation to force Georgia into peace".
5/12
In 2008 he established the Anti-Corruption Council. Dmitry was an expert on corruption: later in 2016-2017 Navalny exposed that Medvedev controlled vast amounts of villas, palaces, wineries, yachts, etc. The total value of his belongings was estimated to be 1,2 billion USD.
6/12
His 80-hectare dacha consisted of several houses, a ski run, a swimming pool with a waterfall, three helipads, communication towers and a house for ducks. These ducks became the target of public ridicule and a symbol of protests in Russia.
themoscowtimes.com/2016/09/15/eve…
7/12
After Navalny's revelation, there were a lot of protests around Russia and in 2017 Levada poll 45% of Russians supported his resignation. He worked as the Russian PM until 2020, but after the relations with Putin became sour, Vlad sacked Medvedev and his entire Cabinet.
8/12
Like all good Russians, Medvedev allegedly loves alcohol. There were wild speculations about his sobriety at G-8 meeting back in 2009.These days Medvedev is doing angry rants on social media, calling for genocide in Ukraine on almost daily basis, threatening the West with ...9/12
... both nuclear and traditional weapons, blaming NATO for proxy war - you know,the usual stuff.
One time he rambled about Ukraine:"I am often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh. The answer is I hate them. They are bastards and geeks. They want death for us, Russia...10/12
... And as long as I’m alive, I will do everything to make them disappear." Maybe stay off the vodka for a while,Dimi?
In July, 2022, he shared a map showing Ukraine divided between Russia, Poland, Romania & Hungary.Based on him,this prediction was done by "Western experts"
11/12
On 26 Dec, 2022, he made a wild prediction for the near future. In his prediction, the US was torn by a civil war and Elon Musk was elected the president. Elon called Dmitry's prophecy "epic".
12/12
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.