'Isolated' Medvedev mans the office as protests dog Putin's European trip

Dmitry Astakhov / Ria Novosti via Reuters

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stands in his office in Moscow on April 9, 2013, before an interview with a Russian television channel.

By David R Arnott, NBC News

Three topless protesters, members of the women's rights group Femen, disrupt a visit between Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel at a trade fair in Hannover. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin continued a European trip marked by protest, his successor as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was left looking rather wistful at his office back in Moscow?Tuesday.

Since Putin and Medvedev swapped jobs in May last year, the latter has found himself out of the limelight and has even found time to indulge his passion for photography.

NPR's Moscow correspondent?Corey Flintoff reported earlier this month that Medvedev?appears increasingly isolated from the center of power and may have been?the target of a campaign to wreck his reputation.

Putin, who was confronted by topless protesters in Germany on Monday, faced further demonstrations in the Netherlands, where 1,000 gay rights activists waved pink and orange balloons and blasted out dance music to condemn Russia's treatment of homosexuals.?

AFP - Getty Images, RIA Novosti via AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a busy day Monday: (clockwise from top left) Sitting in a Volkswagen XL 1 Hybrid car in Hanover, Germany; laughing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; arriving at Schiphol airport in The Netherlands; drinking a toast with Dutch Queen Beatrix at the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam.

Robin Utrecht / EPA

Demonstrators participate in a protest near the National Maritime Museum, where Putin was having dinner, in Amsterdam on April 8, 2013. The protesters were denouncing a so-called 'homosexual propaganda ban' in Russia which was enacted in January.

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