Though he liked to present himself as a modernizer, Putin’s successor as president, Medvedev, continued to steer a hard line. As the financial markets in the United States convulsed in the summer of 2008, dark rumors circulated that Moscow was about to move from verbal attacks on dollar hegemony to concerted action. US Treasury Secretary Paulson had not named his sources, but in the run-up to the Olympics, his Chinese contacts informed him that they “had received a message from the Russians which was, ‘Hey let’s join together and sell Fannie and Freddie securities on the market.’”
