Gone are the days when Russian big brass looked olive drab and oblivious of modern facial care. Gone are even the not so remote days of ill-advised attempts at classy act with the help of flashy Italian garb and bling-style accessories.
Russia's new image financed by the seemingly unlimited oil and gas profits is all about understated top-notch luxury and designer-approved colour schemes. Beastly faces of former Communist bosses have vanished into the dusty archives of history. The state-of-the-art spin machine has fixed everything down to good boys' facial expressions and impeccable manicure. Gorbachev's broad Southern accent and Yeltsin's habitual malapropisms have given way to intelligentsia-style vocal inflections and even English fluency.
New leaders of new Russia are, as Marx would remark, the products of the system. Capitalism requires products to be well designed and presented and politicians are no exception. Even tough cookie Condie Rice was impressed: 'Medvedev is of the new generation', she conceded warmly.
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