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Analysts long speculated that Medvedev was merely a "seat warmer" while Putin served as Prime Minister due to constitutional restrictions.

My comments:

“Seat warmer” is originally a sports term. In many team sports, such as basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc, you see a fixed number of players playing any given time during a game. Basketball, for example, is five on five, soccer eleven against eleven, while for volleyball, six vs. six.

However, teams carry more than those numbers of players, for obvious reasons, in case of injuries but more importantly they carry more players to serve as reserves, or substitutes as they’re called in games.

A basketball team for instance is allowed to carry 12 players, with only five as starters - the rest are reserves.

Or bench or seat warmers – so called because they sit mostly on the team bench as they do not get to play. They seldom leave their seat – hence warming the seat up with their body temperature.

Mr. Medvedev being merely seat warmer means, therefore, merely that he doesn’t run Russia - he occupies the seat of the President while Mr. Putin serves as Prime Minster.

Mr. Putin, these analysts suggest, is the one who calls the shots in Russia and he may return to take back the seat of the President some day.

This is democracy, Russian style.

Related stories:

On-the-go

On the fence

Wild guess

In the high teens

Touch up

Unforced error

Catch a break

City slicker

Political correctness

Gee up

Big mind

Blanket statement

Making knee-jerk changes is not in our DNA

Pick one's brains

A good eye

Thank one's stars for

Real money

Nodding acquaintance

Flip out over nothing

Bury the hatchet& have an ax to grind

Vocal proponent

Growing pains

Fleeting acquaintance

All-weather friend

Lead the pack

Fish or cut bait

Gilt-edged

To do more with less

Right down the middle

Take my word for it

40-sometimes

Last but not the least

Call it a dog

Pull my leg

Ego bath

Tough call

Rain check

Upper reaches

Off the shoulders

Off and running

Gold dust

Frugality fatigue

Red flag

Foregone conclusion

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.