“Putin’s plot to establish himself as prime minister under amenable president after his own presidential term ends is doomed. Russians are not likely to elect a no-one even if Putin endorses him. Russians want leaders with charismatic potential, not the dull figures Putin promotes for nominal presidency. A dull presidential candidate won’t win Russian elections if conducted with the least transparency – assuming, of course, that the opposition fields a popular candidate rather than some liberal marginal.”

Well, Medvedev won easily. Shoher ignored the fact that the Russian State has almost exclusive control of Russian media. Opposition candidates were given less coverage than Medvedev, and the media was for the most part forbidden to give the West’s favorite, Kasparov, any air time. The fact that Medvedev was strongly endorsed by Putin was also an important factor in Medvedev’s victory.

“Even if Putin succeeds at installing a weak president, such weakling would soon become strong and arrogant, a center of gravity for Putin’s opponents. Putin himself was weak at first. New president won’t tolerate the all-powerful Prime Minister Putin.”

We’ll see. Remember that above all, as Yevgenia Albat puts it, Russia is a KGB state, and Putin is the KGB’s man. And Medvedev undoubtedly knows on which side his bread is buttered. Go against the program and he may have sudden health problems. They had no problem getting Litvenenko in far-away London, however clumsily.

The fact is, Western pundits have been predicting Russia’s demise for over 90 years now, and predicting its entry into the Western fold with every one of its temporary phases of economic liberalization.

Mr Shorer writes that “Russian political weight worldwide has dwindled”.

Russia is on good terms with Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Iran, to name a few. It’s relations with China have never been better, and it is extending its ties with Asia through the SCO, an organization of countries that accounts for a majority of the world’s population if you include India whish has observer status. The EU holds Russia in high regard, despite nervousness over gas supplies. Russia and the EU have a long-range goal of creating a “single security space” stretching from the Atlantic to Vladivostok. Germany’s former president Yoshka Fisher was on such good terms with Russia that he got a job with Gazprom after leaving office.

Among Americans, too, Russia has much respect. Former presidential candidate and politico Patrick Buchanan sees Russia as occupying the high moral ground vis-à-vis the U.S. on the world stage, as do most of the American left, a not insubstantial percentage of the American populace, and not a powerless lot. The Left worldwide still sees eye-to-eye with Russia on most issues.

It would be wise not to underestimate Russia.

The way I see it, Russia is the world’s largest arms dealer, and they will continue to fulfill that part for as long as they could.

It will be good news if Russia will be out of the game. Then we can just worry about the Chinese, North Koreans, Pakistani, Iranians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lybians, Palestinians, ‘Israeli-Arabs’, the UN, and the world-wide Islamic terror organizations.
That would be great!

I just don’t see how this proposed solution could work:
“the world must be prepared to buy them off from dealers.”

Something needs to be done before Russia starts decaying.