These days, authoritarian populism in Russia requires a certain street cred and swagger in the orotorical style … even if it comes out rather unconvincingly from a dimunitive lawyer.
On Tuesday, he used some of his harshest rhetoric to date, calling Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili a “political corpse” and suggesting the U.S. somehow instigated the war in Georgia to bolster Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign. (…) Squaring his shoulders, looking grim and punctuating his speeches with uncharacteristically blunt language, the 42-year-old Medvedev has in recent months sounded like Putin, his predecessor and mentor. On Aug. 11, he used the words “lunatic” and “bastard” in talking about Saakashvili.
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The so-called “president” of Russia (everybody knows he has no real power) talks like a common street thug — proving just how soundly the President of Georgia has defeated him.Wonder how Russians would react if President Bush called Medvedev, not elected freely as the President of Georgia has repeatedly been, a “bastard.”Putin complained to Time magazine that Westerners wrongly see Russias as “a little bit savage.” Indeed, they are mistaken. They don’t realize Russia is much more savage than that.