As Dmitry Medvedev settled back into his chair at January's World Economic Forum in Davos, he could feel satisfied. His keynote speech to global business leaders - delivered partly in English - had gone down well.

He batted back a softball question from the moderator, suggesting with a touch of superiority that, had the questioner followed his speech a little more closely, the answer would be clear. Then came a follow-up: was Russia's emerging system of state-managed market development closer to the Chinese or Korean model?