Putin steps down. ....or steps to the side?

Putin stepping down?

So Putin has just recently stepped down as the Russian President and became the Russian Prime Minister. Russia has mixed political system as their form of government. Presidential and Paliamentary. He is no longer the top executive or the highest holding office in Russia. This, however, doesn't mean he has completely dissapeared from Russian politics and it def. doesn't mean that he no longer has a "grip of power" when it comes to making decision in government. On the contrary, I think that the new Russian President, Dimitri Medvedev, is just an extension of Vladimir Putin. They have very similar goals, almost identical. According to the New York Times,

"The proposals included efforts to reduce double-digit inflation; tax breaks for education, housing and medical costs; and more spending for housing, infrastructure and military equipment. "

Anyway, I agree with the UK Times Online, in calling Medvedev a "puppet president."
I believe that Putin and Medvedev are up to something... not right. By that I mean that I don't  trust their intentions, there is something about the way Putin carried himself while in office that doesn't seem right to me. Putin has long history of dominating the Media and feeding the citizens only information that he wants. The Media has been called "the government watchdog" but in this case, it seems like the "watchdog" is owned by the Russian Government. This means that the Media in Russia doesn't have the ability to publish/broadcast information that may attack the government.

Something is going on in Russia that doesn't seem right. The next  U.S. President should keep an eye on Russia and its actions....we shouldn't intervene unless it is a serious situation that demands immediate attention.

Let's just wait and see what Russia does and how it acts in the international environment after Medvedev is in power a bit longer.

A video of Medvedev taking the oath to become Russian President