Most of the media here in Russia and abroad is rushing to write off Medvedev as a soft and cuddly tebby bear (medved means bear in Russian). But in the current issue of the muckraking magazine The New Times a very different and more believable version is told. A look back at  Medvedev's rise to power shows that he's not as spineless as he's made out to be.

According to an article not yet published on the website, Medvedev's old-school St. Petersburg acquaintances remember him as an ambitious and vengeful character who harbored grudges long after everyone else forgot (remind you of anyone?). At the same time, Medvedev was very sentimental and old fashioned. In the patriarchal world of Russian politics—where everything is about favors, clans and "otkaty" or kickbacks—Medvedev never forgot to look out for his own people. and expected to be rewarded for his efforts in kind.

And, according to the New Times, Medvedev seems to have done a lot of good for people around around him. So now a lot of people will be expected to pay up to the new Russian president.

Here are a few favors Medvedev can call back in:

*Medvedev made a lot of friends at the start of his political career in the early 90s when he was called in to legally "clean up" a scandal that implicated Putin's (then-deputy mayor of St. Petersburg) team in the embezzlement of millions of dollars. 

*In 2001, Medvedev saved billionaire oligarch Alisher Usmanov, the world's 142nd richest person, from serious legal troubles and jail. Usmanov is now the director of Gazprom Investment holdings (while Medvedev chairs Gazprom), has billions in metals holding and also owns Kommersant, a newspaper that was once one Russia's most respected daily. He's also a pretty scary dude. 

*In 2003, Medvedev intervened to fend off a hostile "raid" on timber giant Ilim Pulp by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and silovik scary-man Igor Sechin.. See more on Ilim Pulp's connection to Medvedev here.

*Medvedev is credited with cooking up the "legal" framework which has allowed the state to re-nationalize privatized industries. 

Russian politics might be some of the most brutal political proving grounds on earth. Anyone who's managed to stay on top is anything but weak. So far, Medvedev has played his hand better than anyone around him. Sometimes that means appearing submissive, and sometimes that means going on the attack. If the experience of Putin shows anything, it's that we have no idea what sort of "liberal" or "Putinite" Medvedev will be, but we can probably guess that he won't betray Putin, and that his appointment hasn't made Sechin's FSB clan very happy.

--Yasha Levine