MOSCOW (AFP) — Still Russia's dominant politician, Vladimir Putin can only relish the prospect of a new bout of Russian-US rivalry with American leader-in-waiting Barack Obama, say analysts.
Vladimir Putin
While much of the world celebrated Obama's US presidential win, a stony-faced Russian reaction was a reminder of Cold War-style tensions between Washington and Moscow.
On the Internet, Russian bloggers portrayed the victory of a black candidate as evidence of American decline. On an official level, President Dmitry Medvedev chose the day of Obama's win to announce the deployment of short-range missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost in Europe.
Numerous analysts said Medvedev's response was clearly authored by Putin, no longer president himself but powerful in the prime minister's post and long the spearhead of Russian attacks on the United States.
