分析人士:普京与梅德韦杰夫交换职务并不意外

短语讲解：

1. Russian political experts say the announcement that Vladimir Putin will run for president in next year’s elections while Dmitri Medvedev will become prime minister in a new government took no one by surprise.

run for竞选；让…竞选
例句：Mr. Brown did not want to run for governor of the state last year.
布朗先生去年不想竞选州长。

2. “People have been puzzling over what was going to happen, knowing that it would be between the two of them for some time, and a lot of people for sometime have thought Putin intended to come back," said Robert Legvold, a Russia expert at Columbia University.

puzzle over苦苦思考
例句：They puzzled over the question for quite a while.
这问题他们苦苦地想了很久。

3. Remember two years ago when they extended the presidential term [from four to six years], the assumption was that had been pushed through so that Putin could come back even earlier than a regular constitutional election.

push through设法完成(某事)，促成
例句：We must push the matter through.
我们必须设法完成这件事。

4. Many Russia analysts say the job swap between Medvedev and Putin transforms the March presidential elections into a farce.

transform into把…转变成…
例句：The magician transformed the man into a rabbit.
魔术师把那个人变成了兔子。

5. “It may be one of the reasons why he’s resuming the presidency because I think he hopes that he can turn his personal popularity into support for the regime, for the government and for the policies that it is pursuing," he said.

turn into(使)变成
例句：The old building was turned into a library.
这座旧房子被改作了图书馆。

6. In the end, many experts, including Matthew Rojansky, believe the two men work as a team.

work as任…职, 当…
例句：It must be a hard life, working as a nurse in a backward country.
在落后的国家当一名护士, 生活必定是艰苦的。

7. Analysts say the Putin/Medvedev team faces some daunting tasks ahead such as modernizing the country’s institutions, opening up the political system and fighting corruption.

open up变宽; 展现; 揭示; 打开
例句：The chance meeting with the president opened up new possibilities for him.
与总统邂逅提供给他新的机会。

8. But many experts question whether the two men will tackle those issues because they really haven’t done so up to now.

up to now到目前为止
例句：Up to now, the work has been quite smooth.
到目前为止,工作很顺利。