Toadies at the service of the regime By Grigory Pasko, journalist Two messages came to my mailbox at the same time. The first was about a search in Chita in the office of the Chita Human Rights Center. The second – about the intimidation of the leader of the youth movement «Oborona», Oleg Kozlovsky, concerning an apartment he rents. The first thought that came to my mind was: “it’s started!”. “It” being what I had been expecting in the capacity of the first steps of Medvedevite rule. I have written and spoken about how Medvedev is a species of Putin subordinate. (It is another matter that Putin too is someone’s subordinate). Putin’s got lots of subordinates like this: all those Abramoviches, Millers, Vainshtoks, Sobyanins, Zubkovs… Medvedev’s lucky—they appointed him as my next president. Naturally, the appointment wasn’t serious. Sort of like the way a grown-up father sometimes lets his young son hold the steering wheel of the car for a while. But in so doing, the father keeps his feet firmly on the gas and brake pedals, which the little boy’s feet can’t reach anyway: first of all, he’s not tall enough, and second, who would ever let him…? But to allow him play with the steering wheel a bit, under supervision, and not for very long – well, that’s okay.