The FT is reporting today on the tough road ahead for Dmitri Medvedev to accomplish his boldly reformist agenda:

“We’ve tried to do this all before. A great deal was not implemented. Instead, they carried out completely different tasks which the country could have done without, such as increasing the role of the state and control over the electoral system and the media,” said Yevgeny Yasin, rector of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and a co-author of Mr Putin’s programme in 2000. Mr Yasin said the sudden inflow of oil dollars as prices soared soon after Mr Putin came to power led the Kremlin to ditch most of the plan for liberal and institutional reform that he had helped plot. Instead of cutting back on the number of state officials, under Mr Putin the number has grown, as has corruption, Mr Yasin said. Implementing his plan “is going to be Mr Medvedev’s toughest task”. (…)