The Georgian crisis has shown President Dmitry Medvedev’s Russia for what it is – an aggressive authoritarian power. The slim hope that he might soften the tough line set by his ex-KGB predecessor, Vladimir Putin, is gone. Prime minister Putin is the master and President Medvedev does his bidding.

The main foreign policy aim is to restore Russia’s lost superpower status: by recovering its dominance in the ex-Soviet Union, exploiting its role as an energy supplier and boosting its say in world affairs.