According to a joke that circulated during the breaks at the recent Russian Internet Week forum, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not allow President Dmitry Medvedev to run for a second term because Medvedev spends too much time on the Internet. The forum is the main annual event of the domestic Internet industry and closely reflects the main development trends in this most dynamic of all segments of Russia’s public life.
There is an element of truth in every joke, as the saying goes. Medvedev’s reputation as the main blogger in the country has clearly not helped his image.
Perhaps Medvedev was a victim of his own clumsy propaganda machine. Each of his short Twitter messages, such as a recent announcement of an upcoming televised meeting with supporters, becomes headline news and is aired several times a day on all state-controlled national television channels. Eventually, any viewer — from the simplest to the most sophisticated — cannot help but become disappointed in the blogger-in-chief.
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