Even the elected leader of the state may not become a spiritual and national leader of the people, if he forgets the commandment: “Not by their words, but for their deeds you recognize them”. In recent months, weeks and days we’ve heard a lot of words. What deeds will follow these words? A leader can obtain “certificate of state maturity” only for his deeds. There are many vital “subjects” in this “certificate”, but few textbooks have been written on them. And there are only two examiners – people and the time. The people in Russia were and are, but leaders have got very few time. Too late to learn.

When deciding on the intervention of Russia in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict in August 2008, Medvedev and Putin faced a difficult choice: not to interfere meant “losing a face”, to allow destabilization in the whole Caucasus, but to defend South Ossetia meant to take on a confrontation with the United States and NATO.

Relationship of times is an objective category. Do we like it or not, we all come from the past, though often we are not on good terms with the experience, the son of difficult errors.