These days anti-war demonstrations in the centre of Moscow pull in only a few hundred people.

ECONOMIST: Who needs democracy?

But all were in or around Chechnya itself, far from the centre of power in Moscow.

ECONOMIST: Terrorism in Russia: The Chechens strike | The

But it stands now where none can avoid seeing it, on a bend in the river at the centre of Moscow.

ECONOMIST: Peter the downright Terrible

After Mr Medvedev's relatively amicable meeting with Barack Obama a month ago, NATO's actions have caused confusion in Moscow, says Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre.

ECONOMIST: Russia and its near abroad

Scott Gehlbach and Konstantin Sonin, of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow, argue that three factors have influenced businessmen to go into politics in post-Soviet countries.

ECONOMIST: Why do professional paths to the top vary so much?