What do you give the world leader who has everything?
President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in California today for the first leg of a three-day tour that will focus heavily on “innovation,” a byword for trying to diversify its economy away from extraction of oil and the like. (Today, Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of oil, having recently lapped Saudi Arabia.)
It’s a packed schedule. Today, Medvedev meets with Governor Arnold, hilarity will ensue, and then tonight, the Russian president will sup at the home of George Schultz, Reagan’s Secretary of State.
Tomorrow, Medvedev will visit Twitter (where he once had an account), Cisco (where a contract will be signed to do business in Skolkovo, the site of the future Russian Silicon Valley), and the California outpost of Yandex, the major Russian search engine.
Medvedev will also get a personal tour of Apple’s Cupertino facilities from Steve Jobs himself. Medvedev, an avid Mac user, allegedly already has an iPad. And now, according to a source in the Russian delegation, Jobs will help Medvedev stay ahead of the curve once more: he will give the Russian president an iPhone 4, a day before it officially goes on sale.
Thursday: meeting with Obama. Yawn.
via Gazeta.ru
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Could we give him a new choke-chain? Or should that be given to Putin?
It’s hard to take Medvedev seriously – even the term “world leader”…unless our media has exaggerated the extent to which M should be regarded as P’s sock-puppet…
Actually we russians don’t care who is who in our president/prime minister tandem, the only thing that matters – system is working as usual
It doe not matter who is the master and who is pet Putin or Medevdev – it does not change anything at all. Why westerm media is so agitated about it?
In response to another comment. See in context »As for president Mevdedev (which in russian language souds like a president of bears) visit to Californina, a lot of russian folks guessing – will he ask governer Arnold for an autograph?
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[...] he’s not rocking this little monster, as well as an iPad–and one writer on True/Slant reckons he’ll be getting an iPhone 4 ahead of schedule. But the idea of Jobs giving a guided tour of [...]
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