Simon Shuster-Time/CNN Moscow: Libya has Given Medvedev a Confidence Boost!

Up until now, President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have kept up appearances of unity on every issue, while no-one much doubted that Putin was still at the wheel, but on Monday, when the Prime Minister compared the Libyan crisis to a "medieval crusade," the cracks began to show: Not only did Medvedev stand up to his former mentor, but government ministers, pundits and state media quickly lined up behind the President. Suddenly, it didn't seem naive to ask: Who is really in charge of Russia? Under the constitution, handling foreign affairs issues fall to the President, as Putin humbly pointed out on Monday when he asked about the crisis in Libya. But that has never stopped the Prime Minister from stating his views on any topic he likes, and it didn't stop him this time from from launching into his harangue: "In the policies of the United States, military intervention is becoming a stable tendency and trend," Putin said, counting the conflicts in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq as examples. "Now Libya is next in line, with the excuse of defending its civilian population, but when you bomb a territory, it is the civilians who die. Where is the logic and the conscience in this?" Then, borrowing the words of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Putin said the UN resolution on the bombing raids resembled "the medieval calls for a Christian crusade."