Tandemocracy
Medvedev–Putin tandemocracy
Russia's rule during 2008–2012
The Medvedev–Putin tandemocracy (Russian: Тандем Медведев—Путин) was the joint leadership of Russia between 2008 and 2012 when Vladimir Putin, who was constitutionally barred from serving a third consecutive term as president of Russia, assumed the role of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev. While the office of prime minister is nominally the subservient position, opinion differs as to what extent Putin was the de facto leader during this period, with most opinion being either that Putin remained paramount or that he and Medvedev had similar levels of power. Putin was re-elected president in the 2012 election and Medvedev became his prime minister.
The term "tandemocracy" is a political neologism, a portmanteau of "tandem" + "-o-" (interfix) + "-cracy" (rule).
During the 2008 Russian presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev was elected president (head of the executive branch) with 73% of votes. He had been nominated as a candidate by four Russian political parties and made a promise to appoint Putin for the position of prime minister during the campaign.[1]
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while holding a constitutionally less significant position, continued to be ranked as a somewhat more popular politician (83% of approval vote in January 2009) than President Dmitry Medvedev (75% of approval vote in January 2009).[2]
According to opinion polls conducted by the Levada Center, in January 2009, 11% of Russia's respondents believed it was Medvedev who had the real power in Russia, 32% believed it was Putin, 50% thought that both Medvedev and Putin had the real power, and 7% answered "did not know".[3] In February 2008, prior to the presidential election, 23% people had believed Medvedev had the real power in the country, 20% thought Putin had the real power, 41% thought Putin and Medvedev had equal shares of power, 16% did not answer.[4] While the number of people who thought that Medvedev was the number one had halved, Putin's approval rating had dropped to 48% from 62% for the same period.[5]