The legal profession has further tightened its iron grip on executive power in recent days with the anointment of Dmitry Medvedev as heir apparent to Soviet dicta – sorry, democratically-elected Russian premier and international goodwill-spreader Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev – poised to take power in this week's Russian elections as The Diary went to press – was barely out of law school when he first penetrated Putin's inner circle. However, according to a recent profile in the Financial Times, he was not necessarily always destined for greatness.

One lawyer who worked with the callow counsel cast doubt on whether Medvedev was ruthless enough to survive the
cut-and-thrust of Kremlin realpolitik.