MOSCOW -- With the apparent election of Vladimir V. Putin's chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as Russia's new president yesterday, the country wades into uncharted waters as it reconciles the emergence of a new leader with the reluctance of its popular, czarlike ruler to fully relinquish power.
Russia's tumultuous history has always been grounded by one constant - that czars, general secretaries and presidents never shared the helm. That is expected to change when Medvedev is inaugurated in May and names Putin his prime minister.
Putin has made it clear he will use the post of premier as a means of maintaining oversight of the country he has ruled as president for the past eight years, and the economic and geopolitical resurrection he has stewarded.
Putin has stated repeatedly that Medvedev will carry out a course for Russia that Putin's Kremlin has established, rather than any agenda for change that Medvedev might propose. Medvedev, a longtime protege of Putin's and one of his closest allies, has dutifully agreed to comply.
What unsettles many in Russia is the potential for a moment in time when Medvedev steps out of Putin's shadow and begins asserting his own leadership. How will Putin, a leader known for his unyielding style of governance, accept the necessity of stepping offstage?
"There's this feeling in Russia that, sooner or later, there will be bickering and squabbles between the two camps, and what we may end up with is paralysis of executive power," says Lilia Shevtsova, an expert on Putin's presidency and an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. "The Kremlin elites will not know who to obey, and whose decisions are more important."
Medvedev, 42, would step into the job without ever holding elected office before, and without any power base of his own.
Though he is considered to be more moderate than Putin, analysts do not expect the Kremlin's icy relations with the U.S. and Western Europe to improve under Medvedev.
He isn't likely to veer from Putin's strong opposition to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and he has already spoken out against U.S. support for Kosovo independence. Experts say Medvedev's tone probably will be less aggressive than Putin's, but the underlying policy won't change.
