Putin and Medvedev sit in a restaurant. Putin: “I’ll have the steak.” Waiter: “And what about the vegetable?” Putin: “He’ll take the steak too.” (LATimes)

So, as awaited, Medvedev won. He won because he went with Putin. For most of the Russians Putin - new Jesus Christ, that saved Russia, which is also trying to save the world from “US hegemony in the world”. The United States of America and its champion countries are the main enemy that “want to destroy the country of russians”.

I was not going to talk about this issue. I just wanted to question if the declared unity of Medvedev and Putin works. Actually, there takes a place differences between these two people: Putin was KGB agent, but Medvedev not - he was enterpreuner, law professor and etc. Does Medvedev want to be always under powerful Putin? Can the phrase “handpicked successor” be addressed to him?

The Shanghai Summit went off without a bang or even a fizzling noise of the Central Asian republics frying under the massive heat of their fellow members from Russia and China. Putin is an honest man according to many here. When pressed, people don’t have a good reason for how honest he is other than the “lack of corruption in Russia.” I’ll leave that out with no comment, this ain’t no political blog!, writes James, the another Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan.

I’ve read an article at the BusinessNewEurope written by Katya Malofeeva and Tim Brenton. The article was telling about Putin’s international legacy. And there was also a case about Russia’s influence in the region of Central Asia.

In Central Asia, Russia has had more success in building relations with the former republics, but a new great game has emerged in the region, largely focused on control of the area’s wealth of natural resource. The Russians remain on top of this struggle for influence, but are being forced to compete on a more level playing field with the US and China.

Most recently, the new theme of energy emerged in Russia’s dealings with other countries in the former Soviet Union. Russia is trying to defend its monopoly in distributing gas to world markets from Central Asia, and was a major opponent of the construction of the BTC pipeline, which bypasses Russia…

Russia is really beeing a major State in the world due to its own energy potential and the resources from Central Asia, especially Turkmenistan. As Russia has the greatest influence and role within Central Asian countries, former USSR republics.