President Dmitry Medvedev returned to the journalism department at Moscow State University today for the first time since last October, when he held a staged event with youth supporters. Back then, several students protesting the closed visit were detained by Medvedev's security personnel. The October scandal reflected the mood of many young, educated Russians, who were disappointed that Medvedev would be abandoning the presidency and would not challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's return this March. The mood today was subdued, and more criticism was ultimately leveled at the budding journalists in the audience than at Medvedev himself. Medvedev went on the offensive against recent criticism of the administration today, telling students that he considered the most recent Russian elections the cleanest in the country's history and that he very well may run for president in 2016. While the visit revealed little new information, it showed Medvedev attempting to win back part of a younger generation that was sorely disappointed by his recent decision not to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the upcoming elections. One student, who asked Medvedev whether he would stand by what he had done as Russia's president in a hypothetical, revolutionary tribunal, was told: "I would be willing to die for my convictions."
Medvedev has been punished severely in the press since his September announcement. While he is expected to serve as prime minister under Putin, should the latter win the March elections, some experts say that Medvedev's political star may be in free fall. Nikolai Petrov, an analyst for the Moscow Carnegie Center, told the Moscow Times that "Medvedev is worse than a lame duck, he's a dead duck... Medvedev is a bad manager. The prime minister's job isn't for him."
The impression that Medvedev's September announcement left among younger, educated Russians became evident during his last visit to the Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University (Zhurfak), which turned into a major scandal. Bypassing the student journalists, Medvedev instead elected to meet with supporters from the Nashi youth group planted at the meeting. Seven students also protested the president's visit by unrolling banners asking the president if he had "conferred with the prime minister before visiting Zhurfak," poking fun at the statement that he and Putin had decided four years ago that the former would not run for president. They were detained for a short time by members of the president's security force.
More than a dozen students and journalists mopped down the main staircase to the department the next day, saying that "[Medvedev's] visit had left a stain on the department and it had to be cleaned off." Medvedev said he would be back in public statements at the time, and several days ago updated his Facebook: "I promised the Zhurfak students that I would come to meet them. I will fulfill that promise in the immediate future."
For many who expected fireworks today, the spark never lit. The first three questions offered Medvedev were personal and reflected the mostly subdued, respectful nature of the rest of the meeting. On social networks, however, criticism was fierce. Writing under the Twitter hash tags #zhurfak (# ) and #pathetic (# ), which has become Medvedev's unofficial handle since his announcement on not returning to office, bloggers lambasted the budding journalists for being afraid to take on the president.
One Twitter respondent asked: "So the vaunted #zhurfak doesn't have the balls to send #pathetic to hell? They're going to listen meekly to all of this nonsense?" Another student in the class, Zaur, wrote: "For me personally, Medvedev is no longer pathetic. He wasn't afraid. Pathetic are those people who wanted to ask sharp questions, and yet..."
Oleg, a third-year student who attended the meeting today, told Russia Profile that while some of the questions were clearly "not about anything," the event was run honestly. "When it came down to it, some of the students simply got nervous. Everything was done honestly today, these were real students with real questions. I especially expected the older students to step up and ask sharper questions, but for some reason they did not seem prepared."
He added that the event had helped subdue some of the anger in the department that was left over from Medvedev's last visit. "There's no general, negative opinion about Medvedev in the journalism department today. There are just as many feelings about him as there are people," he said.
Kira Tverskaya, another third-year student who roamed the halls after the meeting talking to fellow students, said most were pleased to see Medvedev speak honestly and openly about the criticism against him. She thought that some of the questions, including those on censorship and high-profile political cases, had been appropriate, but that some of the students were merely star struck: "There were a lot of students here who said 'Oh my God, the president has come.' Yes, we have some people like that, too."
Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia News - Russia
President Dmitry Medvedev returned to the journalism department at Moscow State University today for the first time since last October, when he held a staged event with youth supporters. Back then, several students protesting the closed visit were detained by Medvedev's security personnel. The October scandal reflected the mood of many young, educated Russians, who were disappointed that Medvedev would be abandoning the presidency and would not challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's return this March. The mood today was subdued, and more criticism was ultimately leveled at the budding journalists in the audience than at Medvedev himself.
Medvedev went on the offensive against recent criticism of the administration today, telling students that he considered the most recent Russian elections the cleanest in the country's history and that he very well may run for president in 2016. While the visit revealed little new information, it showed Medvedev attempting to win back part of a younger generation that was sorely disappointed by his recent decision not to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the upcoming elections. One student, who asked Medvedev whether he would stand by what he had done as Russia's president in a hypothetical, revolutionary tribunal, was told: "I would be willing to die for my convictions."
Medvedev has been punished severely in the press since his September announcement. While he is expected to serve as prime minister under Putin, should the latter win the March elections, some experts say that Medvedev's political star may be in free fall. Nikolai Petrov, an analyst for the Moscow Carnegie Center, told the Moscow Times that "Medvedev is worse than a lame duck, he's a dead duck... Medvedev is a bad manager. The prime minister's job isn't for him."
The impression that Medvedev's September announcement left among younger, educated Russians became evident during his last visit to the Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University (Zhurfak), which turned into a major scandal. Bypassing the student journalists, Medvedev instead elected to meet with supporters from the Nashi youth group planted at the meeting. Seven students also protested the president's visit by unrolling banners asking the president if he had "conferred with the prime minister before visiting Zhurfak," poking fun at the statement that he and Putin had decided four years ago that the former would not run for president. They were detained for a short time by members of the president's security force.
More than a dozen students and journalists mopped down the main staircase to the department the next day, saying that "[Medvedev's] visit had left a stain on the department and it had to be cleaned off." Medvedev said he would be back in public statements at the time, and several days ago updated his Facebook: "I promised the Zhurfak students that I would come to meet them. I will fulfill that promise in the immediate future."
For many who expected fireworks today, the spark never lit. The first three questions offered Medvedev were personal and reflected the mostly subdued, respectful nature of the rest of the meeting. On social networks, however, criticism was fierce. Writing under the Twitter hash tags #zhurfak (# ) and #pathetic (# ), which has become Medvedev's unofficial handle since his announcement on not returning to office, bloggers lambasted the budding journalists for being afraid to take on the president.
One Twitter respondent asked: "So the vaunted #zhurfak doesn't have the balls to send #pathetic to hell? They're going to listen meekly to all of this nonsense?" Another student in the class, Zaur, wrote: "For me personally, Medvedev is no longer pathetic. He wasn't afraid. Pathetic are those people who wanted to ask sharp questions, and yet..."
Oleg, a third-year student who attended the meeting today, told Russia Profile that while some of the questions were clearly "not about anything," the event was run honestly. "When it came down to it, some of the students simply got nervous. Everything was done honestly today, these were real students with real questions. I especially expected the older students to step up and ask sharper questions, but for some reason they did not seem prepared."
He added that the event had helped subdue some of the anger in the department that was left over from Medvedev's last visit. "There's no general, negative opinion about Medvedev in the journalism department today. There are just as many feelings about him as there are people," he said.
Kira Tverskaya, another third-year student who roamed the halls after the meeting talking to fellow students, said most were pleased to see Medvedev speak honestly and openly about the criticism against him. She thought that some of the questions, including those on censorship and high-profile political cases, had been appropriate, but that some of the students were merely star struck: "There were a lot of students here who said 'Oh my God, the president has come.' Yes, we have some people like that, too."