Is JD Vance America’s Medvedev?

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev and JD Vance have a similar background. Both are lawyers, with Medvedev getting his law degree from the Leningrad State University and Vance from Yale.

Neither is an actual politician. Their rise occurred when they, each in his own way, became a protege of a more powerful man.

Medvedev worked closely with Vladimir Putin, who got him transferred to Moscow in the late 1990s, when Putin himself was anointed as Boris Yeltsin’s successor.

Proteges of powerful men

As Putin’s faithful lieutenant, Medvedev went on to serve one term as Russia’s president, keeping the throne warm for Putin.

Likewise, Vance hitched his wagon to PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel, who first set him up in business and then spent a record $15 million on Vance’s senatorial campaign, effectively buying him a Senate seat.

Then Thiel, as well as Elon Musk and other tech billionaires who contributed heavily to Donald Trump’s election campaign, got Vance on the presidential ticket.

Medvedev’s fall from grace

Medvedev is now out of the government. In 2020, after eight years as Putin’s prime minister, he was dismissed and appointed deputy chairman of the Security Council, a role with no power or visibility.

Yet, Medvedev is keeping himself in the news. He is an extremely prolific blogger, posting screeds on Telegram where he heaps obscenities upon Russia’s critics.

Here is how he commented on the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro: “I noted this immediately after the orgy orchestrated by the Yanks: after something like this, the US elites – both Republican and Democrat – should forever shove their long tongues up their scrawny asses.”

Vance is no blogger but he is equally radical in his statements. America’s European allies still remember his speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2025.

At the conference, he laid into America’s European allies, condemning their immigration policies, accusing them of censorship and promoting far-right parties. He has made various other radical pronouncements since then.

United in their hatred of liberal democracy

Medvedev and Vance hate liberal democracy and see Western Europe as a repository of liberal democratic values.

Both claim to stand for “traditional values” and express support for European far right movements. They see Europe, especially the European Union, as decadent and declining.

A change of heart

Well, both men being lawyers, you would not be very surprised if you found out that at some point in the past they held very different views.

Today, Medvedev attacks the West, especially focusing on the perfidy of the Brits. He has even threatened to sink the British Isles with Russian nuclear missiles if the United Kingdom persisted in supporting Ukraine.

Yet, as a teen in the Soviet Union, he was an avid fan of the early British rock bands such as Deep Purple and Pink Floyd, which made him something of a dissident. Deep Purple even played at his birthday party in 2011.

During his presidency he initiated liberal reforms under a slogan “Freedom Is Better Than Unfreedom.”

In 2010 he visited California’s Silicon Valley, hung out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and met Steve Jobs, becoming enamoured of his iPhone.

None of that prevented him from turning against the West on his Telegram channel. His harangues are likely encouraged by Putin.

Medvedev says what Putin thinks but feels it would be undignified for a president to say.

Vance’s about-face

Vance has made a similar about-face. He started out as a darling of the liberals when he wrote his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

The Hollywood film based on his book was directed by Ron Howard and featured Glenn Close, both critics of the Trump Administration.

And, based on Vance’s early statements it would have certainly been difficult to predict his trajectory.

Ten years ago, when Trump announced his first presidential run, he called Trump an idiot, compared him to Hitler and declared him unfit for office.

The transformation is clearly due to Thiel’s patronage. Thiel is unapologetically right-wing, libertarian and anti-democratic, with extreme far-right views.

Personal ambitions

But both Medvedev’s and Vance’s change of heart has personal roots as well. In their own way, these two men harbor political ambitions.

They feel that appealing to the extreme right of their nation’s political spectrum would get them what they want.

Medvedev wants to gain the support of the war faction in post-Putin Russia.

There will be a struggle for power once Putin departs the scene one way or another, and Medvedev, the only man with presidential experience, fancies his chances to come out on top.

Meanwhile, Vance is positioning himself as Trump’s future heir in MAGA for the 2028 presidential election. True, Trump has not endorsed Vance – or anyone else for that matter.

Therefore, Vance keeps showing sycophantic fealty to the leader while staking out a position on the America First, xenophobic right wing of the MAGA movement.

What lies ahead

Whether Medvedev succeeds in returning to the Kremlin is very unclear. Vance has a far better chance to move to the White House – and may even do so before 2029 since Trump is an old man.

If he does, and is therefore cut loose from Thiel, Musk and his other benefactors, it remains to be seen if he sticks to his new-found MAGA ideology.

On the contrary, it is very likely that he will lash out against the white supremacist milieu he is currently cultivating – if for no other reason than because they have been insulting and humiliating his Indian wife Usha and their children.