I saw this interesting translation of a column by Semen Novoprudskiy (Gazeta.ru) on JRL, which argues that comments made by Vladislav Surkov, the ideological author of such recent Russian innovations as sovereign democracy and the Nashi, show that the Kremlin is increasingly concerned by efforts (among the clans or outsiders or both?) to drive a wedge between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. The level of Surkov’s influence is hotly debated among insiders, who were watching his moves before and after the elections.

The Fears of Karabas-Barabas Commentary by Semen Novoprudskiy If there is a rifle hanging on the stage, in act three it is sure to be fired (a dictum of the playwright Chekhov). If the country is being run by two people instead of one, they must inevitably be separated. Apparently even the designers of the deformed political system in which you and I exist as mere pawns, cogs, and nuts have begun to recognize the truth of this axiom. The main Karabas-Barabas (puppeteer; Karabas-Barabas is the evil puppet-master in the story of Buratino, the Russian equivalent of Pinocchio) in Russian politics, First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff Vladislav Surkov, at a meeting in the Kremlin with part of his puppet troupe — activists from the pro-Kremlin movement Young Russia and the New People organization — tried to prove to his puppets that the Putinjugend (Putin Youth; allusion to the Hitlerjugend, Hitler Youth, in Nazi Germany) are necessary to the authorities and will be needed even under President Medvedev. The proof went something like this: “A rather complex phase of political changes is now in store for Russia because of the growth in unfriendly pressure from abroad and the attempts by certain destructive forces within the country to drive a wedge between President Medvedev and Government Chairman Putin.”