Western diplomats and politicians has become increasingly difficult to understand the political line of Russia's leadership, since the statements emanating from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, though not contradictory, but make it absolutely impossible to capture the essence of the Kremlin's position, writes Today the Financial Times in his article The revival of art Kremlinology.

seems particularly obscure the real picture of Moscow's relations to economic sanctions against Iran. And although the president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has officially condemned the Iranian nuclear program and reaffirmed its readiness to support sanctions as a last resort, the real position of Russia's leadership is virtually impossible to trace. And China, which opposes the imposition of sanctions, and the U.S. who are actively insist on this, convinced that Russia supports their position.

interlocutors

publication among Western diplomats agree that such semantic discrepancies in the statements of officials of Russia are the result of an adjusted tactics. Some diplomats believe that Putin and Medvedev will play by the rules bad cop - good cop, others, and does compare the behavior of Russian leaders on the international stage with the popular puppetry about a couple of Punch and Judy.

understanding of the real situation in the Kremlin also significantly complicated by the fact that between Putin and Medvedev are no clear lines of authority. For example, Putin deals with foreign policy issues, which are usually the prerogative of the president, while Medvedev takes over the operational governance and gives direct instructions to members of the Cabinet of Ministers.

However, few believe that the discrepancy in the statements of the Kremlin's newsmakers on key foreign policy issues is a testament to the political rift between Putin and Medvedev.

According to Financial Times, clear differences in the positions of premier and the president appeared only in the question of Russia joining the WTO, when the following statements by Putin that Russia intends to join the organization only as part of a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, and President Medvedev and the head of Russia's negotiator with the WTO held a completely different position. If that continues, it will effectively mean a political defeat for Putin, the paper concludes.