Note to Condi and George... Read this...

i doubt seriously if george and condi would give a second's thought to the following, but, drawing from my limited experience, mr. lieven has a pretty good grasp on reality...

In the West, hostility toward Russian President Vladimir Putin stems from two beliefs: that Russia should move quickly toward Western-style democracy and that there is a strong, popular, liberal opposition ready to lead such a transformation. The first is mistaken, the second, pure fantasy. It will take at least a generation for Russia to build the foundation for a modern market economy and democracy. It’s an uncomfortable reality, but, for the foreseeable future, only a semiauthoritarian government such as Putin’s can keep Russia moving in the right direction. If Putin weren’t there, we’d soon miss him.

the problem, of course, with "semiauthoritarian" governments is they get caught up in their own power and when you have an ex-heavy duty kgb guy like putin at the helm, the risk is commensurately greater... the point is still a good one, however... case in point: putin was obliged to crack down on the likes of khodorkovsky because if he didn't, he'd have the yeltsin version of the wild west to deal with all over again...

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