Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Sistema project carried out an investigation into the financial implications of the blogs of Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council – and what they found is staggering. It was summarized in a June 10 article by the Current Time media outlet.
The former President and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation was seen in this former incarnation as a liberal, Western-leaning politician whom the world could do business with.
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As Russian tanks rolled over Ukraine’s borders, however, Medvedev was considered a spent political force, his appointment to the security council seen as little more than a sinecure, and his popularity with the electorate at an all-time low according to a Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) poll at the end of 2021.
With the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, however, he metamorphosed into the most radical of Kremlin mouthpieces.
Within three weeks he opened his Telegram channel and his debut post, made three days later, offered the first of his many harangues against the West.
His social media ejaculations, made roughly twice a week or when something newsworthy catches his eye, are full of threats against NATO, the US and the West as a whole, often suggesting Russia will/could/should resort to the use of nuclear weapons along with insults to its leaders, officials and citizens.
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Medvedev’s channel very quickly became one of Russia’s most popular. Two months after launch he became the second most popular Russian blogger after Chechen hardman Ramzan Kadyrov, whom he overtook by the end of the year. He now has more than 1.6 million subscribers.
His often splenetic, twice-weekly attacks on Ukraine, the West or anything else that attracts his ire accompanied by regular brandishing of the nuclear option have become a watchword for ridicule amid accusations that his blogs are fired by excessive drinking.
Some of his followers may be attracted by the entertainment value of his rants – for instance, when he refers to Western politicians as “a pack of grunting pigs” – but many share his view of the world, which is reflected in the growth of his popularity in opinion polls over the last three and a half years.
The Kremlin also reacted to the change in Medvedev’s image. At the end of 2022, a position as first deputy in the presidential Military-Industrial Commission was created especially for him. He began to be entrusted with high-level negotiations with China among others, and high-ranking officials began to attend his meetings.
This growing social and political popularity is also reflected in monetary terms according to Sistema’s research. Before the war in Ukraine Medvedev’s income through business and so-called social funds he controlled was around 8 billion rubles ($102 million) a year – not insignificant but nowhere near that alleged to be received by President Vladimir Putin and many of Russia’s oligarchs.
However, by 2023 this had risen to above 50 billion rubles ($635 million), and in 2024 it amounted to a staggering 70 billion ($890 million). Even more surprising is the fact that the source of the income is unknown as where it is held and what it is spent on although the Sistema editor-in-chief Andrei Soshnikov said much went into a range of real estate ventures and luxury items.
The American author and former Kabbalah teacher Yehuda Berg has said “Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble,” a leitmotif that Dmitry Medvedev has subscribed to and from which he has benefitted in so many ways.
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