Next steps

Speculation that Vladimir Putin will move from the Kremlin to the helm of gas gian Gazprom when he's forced to relinquish the presidency are, in fact, quite welcome. I wouldn't have considered it a foregone conclusion that Putin, like Yeltsin before him, would step down at all. I thought he might prefer and custom-built loophole in the constitution. In fact, I still would lay odds on it.

Here's a scenario: sometime between now and the March 2008 elections there's another bomb or terrorist attack, blamed on the conveniently placed Chechens or Al Qaeda, which threatens the stability of the Russian state and just demands that Volodya stick around. We shall see.