Putin and the left

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

>      This explains the people's trust for Putin. They believe 
> that he wants to materialise their desires and think that he is 
> not succeeding because he is surrounded on all sides by 
> powerful opponents of the idea of public prosperity, such as 
> the oligarchs, Yeltsin's "family," corrupt officials, the 
> proponents of liberal-thieving policy supported by the West, 
> and the like. 

That an old canard of good tsar and bad boyars.  Seems that not much has
changed in the realm of Russian collective consciousness since then.
Also seems that Max Weber was right about different forms of authoriy
being associated with different stages in the modernization process.

Wojtek