LENIN & MEDVEDEV, ANCESTORS & THE FUTURE; ALSO LIBYA & PUTIN

RED SQUARE 

AT DUSK 

LENIN'S MAUSOLEUM (right) 

ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL (left), 

AND A BABUSHKA 

SWEEPING RED SQUARE 

AT DUSK, MOSCOW, 1984 

Following up on yesterday's post about the exhibit in the State History Museum that quotes Lenin's sister on their maternal grandfather's ethnicity and religious conversion (see here), another photograph of Red Square back in the day.  A generation after the photograph was taken in 1984, and almost two decades after the Soviet Union fell, Lenin's mortal remains still remain in the mausoleum that once held Joseph Stalin as well. 

Meanwhile, in Deauville, France, today, the G8 met with Libya on its mind.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev let it be known through his press secretary that the NATO members of the G8 had asked Russia to take on a mediating role in the Libyan crisis.  There was, Reuters tells us, no word on whether Medvedev would undertake such a mission.   There was moreover some suspicion cast on the news the Russian president's office was putting about:  "a G8 diplomatic source" was quoted as saying, "We must have not heard the same thing."  A tad catty for a diplomat?   Truth-telling?  Or a failure to get the memo? 

AP had another angle on the story:  Asking Russia to mediate was not a sign of Russia's indispensability, but a ploy to placate a supplicant still at the fringes of the action.  The American president's National Security team threw in a few flattering words:  "Russia has relations, not just in Libya but across most of North Africa. ... We can benefit from those types of consultations and contacts with them."  And President Obama himself was said to be "'leading that initiative to work with the Russians' on Libya." 

Well, Russia still does have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  And it did not use its veto power back when authorization was sought for this campaign against Libya, or against the present Libyan authorities, or to preserve human life in Libya.   This was President Medvedev's choice to make, and suddenly the other half of the Russian ruling Tandem, Prime Minister Putin, the once and possibly future president, seemed to beg to disagree (details here).