“A Constructive and Comradely Dialogue”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may look young and inexperienced (this is his first elected position), but he is already showing a mastery of the Kremlin’s trademarked diplomatic doublespeak – making vast swings between aggressive and friendly tones in his comments. Today he plays good cop:

Asked by a conference delegate about the presidential election in the United States this year, he said Russia would work with the winning candidate.

“There is no alternative, because the responsibility that falls on both our countries for world order and supporting peace and stability on the planet, is colossal,” Medvedev said.”Whoever comes to power in the White House, the Russian Federation counts on a constructive and comradely dialogue with the new U.S. administration, and we are prepared to do that.”

But on Sunday he played bad cop, firing some rhetorical missiles at the Yanks to rouse up the nationalist base (and probably entertain the Europeans):”The aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world have led not only to corporate losses; most people on the planet have become poorer,” he said, concluding that America’s “economic egoism” and Western protectionism had triggered a global economic slowdown.For a guy who made his living on a pipeline monopoly, talking about protectionism is not short of amusing … but in a way it is a positive thing to see this mastery of doublespeak – evidently it is a requirement for survival in the bureaucracy.