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