Russians snap up Medvedev portraits ahead of vote

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's icy blue gaze may soon be replaced by the softer brown eyes of his protege Dmitry Medvedev in the portraits that stare from the walls of tens of thousands of Russian offices.

Bureaucrats and businessmen have been snapping up Medvedev photographs ever since Putin -- whose eyes famously gave President George W. Bush "a sense of his soul" -- backed the former corporate lawyer as his successor last December.

Now sales of pictures of Medvedev are soaring ahead of Sunday's presidential election, in which he is set for an overwhelming victory.

Russians hang framed pictures of the Kremlin chief in government offices, businesses and even schools in a show of public fealty that portrait sellers say has its roots in Tsarist history and the Soviet Union's personality cults.

"Since it was announced Medvedev was the official successor, we immediately started getting inquiries about him and now Medvedev has really overtaken Putin in sales," said Vladimir Tyshko, who sells photographic portraits of politicians.

"With the elections approaching, Medvedev is selling very well. About 70 percent of people want portraits of Medvedev and 30 percent want Putin now. Before, Putin was of course the absolute leader by sales. Now it is Medvedev," he said.

Tyshko's www.vRamke.ru Internet shop sells a giant 1.2-metre (3.9 ft)-high Medvedev portrait for 20,000 roubles ($830). Smaller portraits, showing a benevolent-looking Medvedev, go for 2,000 roubles.

Russians have been putting up portraits of their tsars, general secretaries and presidents for centuries, though the tradition weakened slightly after the fall of the Soviet Union.