Medvedev Takes a Page From Obama's Socialist Playbook

Taking his cue from President Obama, who - last year - had asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to resign, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday called for officials in charge of preparing Russian athletes for the Winter Olympics to resign after the country suffered its worst-ever performance in Vancouver.

"Those in charge of preparation for the Olympics must take responsibility right now. The responsible persons should take the courageous decision and submit their resignation," Medvedev said in televised remarks.

"If they cannot do it we will help them," he added, speaking at a meeting with leaders of the ruling United Russia party.

Vyacheslav Bykov, coach of the Russian Hockey team, directed his ire toward the players [last week], saying:

"Let’s put up a bunch of guillotines and gallows. We have 35 people on the hockey team. Let’s go to Red Square and dispatch with them all.”

Medvedev, in his critique of the Russian Olympic Federations, borrowed a term commonly used by President Obama: "Fat Cats".

"We need to think about how to change the system of preparing athletes. Its main focus needs to be the athlete himself, not the federations, which seem sometimes like fat cats," Medvedev said.

The Russian President also lamented the loss of the 'old Soviet school'.

“For a long time we were riding on Soviet-era potential [in the Olympics]," he said. "At some point it ran out. We’ve already lost the old Soviet school; it shouldn’t be idealized, but it’s gone, and we haven’t created our own school.”

Russia is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea coast, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is taking “special control” of preparations for the Sochi games, according to Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the party and speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament.

Clearly, President Obama, in his takeover of GM and the banking industry, has struck a chord with both Putin and Medvedev - who are now following in the footsteps of their beloved Comrade and Socialist mentor.