A year ago, the tomes of Russia's official history got a little fatter thanks to President Dmitri Medvedev, who helped publish the letters of post-Soviet Russia's first President, Boris Yeltsin. In a foreword to the collection, Medvedev eulogized the founding father, who died in 2007, for creating "the base of a new Russian statehood, without which none of our future successes would be possible." But behind closed doors on Monday, during a meeting with opposition leaders, Medvedev reportedly offered another take on the official story. According to four people who were in the room, Medvedev stated, like a bolt from the blue, that Russia's first President did not actually win re-election in 1996 for his second term. The second presidential vote in Russia's history, in other words, was rigged.
With less than two weeks before Russia's next presidential election, this is not a random piece of trivia for the country's chattering class. It was Yeltsin, after all, who named Vladimir Putin as his chosen successor in 2000 to ease him into power. And it was Putin who did the same favor for Medvedev eight years later. So if the third link in this chain has admitted that the first link was a fraud, what does that make him? What does that make the entire system? What does that mean for Putin's campaign to win a third term as President?
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