WikiLeaks picks Russian president

While many people in Russia and in the rest of the world are trying to guess whether Dimity Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are going to run for presidency in 2012, WikiLeaks knows everything beforehand.

The return of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as Russia's President is inevitable. This is what Russian scientists of politics where sharing with American diplomats. It is already obvious that Russian voters will have to choose between one of the two main presidential candidates in 2012. The parliamentary opposition in the face of Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and others will fly by and win their usual tiny percentage of votes.

Putin made a subtle decision. He gave Russia a liberal president, who was concerned with the program of modernization and technological innovations. Russia has not had big success in foreign policy during the recent eight years. Medvedev advocates friendly relations with the West, but Russia has not achieved anything during the meetings within the framework of the G8 and the European Union.

Medvedev shares a different point of view, though. He is certain that during his presidency Russia managed to overcome the financial crisis and lash Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia in August 2008. One should bear in mind the fact that it was Putin and the Finance Minister (who is a member of Putin's team), who put forward the idea to spend gold and currency reserves to avoid the collapse of the Russian ruble as it happened in 1998.

Medvedev said during his recent interview with The Financial Times that he had an intention to run, although he added that he was not going to compete with Putin. Medvedev is aware of the fact that he is No. 2 after Putin in all ratings.

As for Putin, he started working on his campaign soon after Medvedev took office as president in 2008. He has a strong team with himself, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, and many others. If Medvedev wants to keep his office in 2012, he will have to make serious changes in the Cabinet of Ministers.

Vladimir Putin as President in 2012 is an axiom.

Darya Deryabina