Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

The New Republic Daily Report

02/15/11

Dmitri Medvedev’s Quest to Create a Russian Silicon Valley 

Paul Starobin

When Dmitri Medvedev became Russia’s president in 2008, he projected a very different image from that of his predecessor. Vladimir Putin is a buff former KGB agent who is fond of rugged pursuits, such as hunting and fishing, and is frequently photographed engaged in them without his shirt on. Medvedev is an elfin St. Petersburg-trained lawyer who enjoys chess and photography, practices yoga daily, and is the proud owner of the complete recordings of Deep Purple on vinyl. Where Putin’s economic vision seemed to consist solely of the crass exercise of Russia’s petro-power, Medvedev has called for the country to encourage entrepreneurship and compete with the West.

In that spirit, last summer, Medvedev made a pilgrimage to Silicon Valley. (Putin was busy attending a bikers’ rally in the Ukraine, where he showed up astride a gigantic Harley Davidson.) For Medvedev, who is a keen technology enthusiast, the trip was more like a vacation than a state visit. Ditching his necktie and donning blue jeans, he soaked up San Francisco’s charms, observing, “It must be hard to work in such a city where you would always be wanting to look around and relax.” Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave him an iPhone4, and he bonded with then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over discussions of Russian bodybuilders and the 1988 cold war buddy-cop movie Red Heat. In keeping with his vow to improve government transparency, Medvedev recorded his impressions of the trip on his LiveJournal blog. He also opened a Twitter account (inaugural tweet: “Hello, I am on Twitter and this is my first message”), which, the Kremlin duly announced, would receive “round-the-clock support from a special editorial team of several people.”

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