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.