At the same time, though, prosecutors are pursuing new charges against Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia’s richest man and was imprisoned in 2003 after angering Putin by getting involved in politics. The new charges, which could keep Khodorkovsky behind bars for two more decades, have been widely seen as a sign that the Kremlin has no intention of loosening the reins.
“We so want to believe that things are getting better that we sometimes confuse our expectations with what is really happening,” said Irina Yasina, an analyst at the Institute for the Economy in Transition in Moscow, who was also at the meeting with Medvedev. “We so want to believe that there is a big difference between Putin and Medvedev. And sometimes our hopes prevent us from seeing the reality.”
Beyond the debate about whether Medvedev is sincere, there is another issue. Does he have the power to carry out significant changes in civil liberties, political pluralism and related matters, especially during the financial crisis?
Putin, of course, is still in office. As in Soviet times, there are competing groups of senior officials in the Kremlin — some liberal, some decidedly not. Some have signaled that it would be a mistake to consider ceding control now that Russia is facing widespread unemployment and fears of disorder in regional centers.
In March, Vladislav Surkov, often described as the Kremlin’s chief political strategist, publicly mocked calls for reform.
“The system is working,” he said. “It will cope with the crisis and get through it.”
In truth, it is not at all clear that most Russians care about Medvedev’s gestures. A majority of the population is primarily concerned with what the government is doing to preserve stability and the strong economic gains of the last decade.
What is more, the government in the Putin era has mounted such a sustained campaign against liberals and advocacy groups that they have become widely discredited.
“Most people don’t trust these organizations, which have been brought in from abroad,” said Yevgeny Fedorov, a prominent member of parliament from Putin’s party. “They carry out lobbying, involving the political, economic or other interests, of those who have sent them here and financed their activities.”
For now, the liberals say they have not given up on Medvedev, though they have grown very discouraged.
Simonov, the leader of the media advocacy group, said that when he left the meeting with Medvedev, he ran into a group of executives arriving for consultations with the government.
They were the heads of the national TV networks, which have come under stiff official control. Simonov said he realized that while he was not a frequent visitor to the Kremlin, those executives most definitely were.
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