“To avoid going the way of Yeltsin, Russia's leader faces a fairly seamless web of choices. He has to get the country's economy going and to do that he must get control of the oligarchs. To get control of the oligarchs, he must both entice them and frighten them. To frighten them, he must create a sense of national embattlement that strengthens his regime and puts them at risk. To create that sense of embattlement, Putin needs an international crisis. If missile defenses won't do, he will find something else. For this Putin needs a foreign enemy and the United States is the obvious choice.”
We’ll see if Putin is any more successful at bringing Russia’s oligarchs to heel than Clinton was at showing Wall St. who’s boss.
Stratfor's web sit is at http://www.stratfor.com
Carl
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