Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.S.R.!

Vladimir Putin continues his consolidation of power in Moscow, with the mystery winner of Sunday's auction for Yuganskneftegas—the cornerstone of the embattled Russian oil giant YUKOS' empire—now sold in its own turn to the state-controlled firm Rosneft. The Russian president (may we call him an "oil czar?") has aggressively pursued the explicit, de facto de-privatization of YUKOS now for over a year, using every legal and extralegal means available to him. This saga became public with the October 2003 arrest of Russia's wealthiest man, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and it seems that Putin will not be satisfied until the state gains control over all of the country's major industries and resources, either through direct acquisition or by cowing the remainder of the oligarchs into submission. Any gains that democracy and capitalism made in the 1980s and '90s are being rapidly and systematically reversed, and I believe that Putin's appetite is not limited to Russia proper, but envisages a return to the Czarist- and Soviet-era domination of her (especially European) neighbors. If the Bush administration truly hopes to advance the cause of democracy throughout the world in the early twenty-first century, it cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the march of autocracy that is occurring 1,600 miles north of Iraq. Russian-American relations are incredibly complicated at this time, with the Muscovite interference in the Ukrainian elections, vague concurrence of our respective wars against "Muslim extremism," and mutual security concerns in East Asia; the Russian people themselves seem to value strong leadership and a national return to regional hegemony and world power over popular participation in government and guaranteed personal and economic freedoms, but, nonetheless, the White House must bring what pressure it can to bear upon Putin's nationalization of Russian industry and resources. Available policies include (where legal) targeting the American assets of Russian state-controlled firms and sheltering the assets of private firms under siege from the Putin government, advancing popular causes in formerly-Soviet republics (primarily the European ones), and strengthening the sovereign positions of such Caucasian oil-producers and -transporters as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Ukraine. I hope to see more realpolitik practiced in our peripheral relations with Russia, and hopefully the Russian people, rather than abandoning the struggle perceived to be between multibillionaire politicians on one side and multibillionaire industrialists on the other (1905, anyone?), will persistently demand a voice for themselves. WHAT A COUNTRY!

Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.S.R.!

Vladimir Putin continues his consolidation of power in Moscow, with the mystery winner of Sunday's auction for Yuganskneftegas—the cornerstone of the embattled Russian oil giant YUKOS' empire—now sold in its own turn to the state-controlled firm Rosneft. The Russian president (may we call him an "oil czar?") has aggressively pursued the explicit, de facto de-privatization of YUKOS now for over a year, using every legal and extralegal means available to him. This saga became public with the October 2003 arrest of Russia's wealthiest man, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and it seems that Putin will not be satisfied until the state gains control over all of the country's major industries and resources, either through direct acquisition or by cowing the remainder of the oligarchs into submission. Any gains that democracy and capitalism made in the 1980s and '90s are being rapidly and systematically reversed, and I believe that Putin's appetite is not limited to Russia proper, but envisages a return to the Czarist- and Soviet-era domination of her (especially European) neighbors. If the Bush administration truly hopes to advance the cause of democracy throughout the world in the early twenty-first century, it cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the march of autocracy that is occurring 1,600 miles north of Iraq. Russian-American relations are incredibly complicated at this time, with the Muscovite interference in the Ukrainian elections, vague concurrence of our respective wars against "Muslim extremism," and mutual security concerns in East Asia; the Russian people themselves seem to value strong leadership and a national return to regional hegemony and world power over popular participation in government and guaranteed personal and economic freedoms, but, nonetheless, the White House must bring what pressure it can to bear upon Putin's nationalization of Russian industry and resources. Available policies include (where legal) targeting the American assets of Russian state-controlled firms and sheltering the assets of private firms under siege from the Putin government, advancing popular causes in formerly-Soviet republics (primarily the European ones), and strengthening the sovereign positions of such Caucasian oil-producers and -transporters as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Ukraine. I hope to see more realpolitik practiced in our peripheral relations with Russia, and hopefully the Russian people, rather than abandoning the struggle perceived to be between multibillionaire politicians on one side and multibillionaire industrialists on the other (1905, anyone?), will persistently demand a voice for themselves. WHAT A COUNTRY!

Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.-, Back in the U.S.S.R.!

Vladimir Putin continues his consolidation of power in Moscow, with the mystery winner of Sunday's auction for Yuganskneftegas—the cornerstone of the embattled Russian oil giant YUKOS' empire—now sold in its own turn to the state-controlled firm Rosneft. The Russian president (may we call him an "oil czar?") has aggressively pursued the explicit, de facto de-privatization of YUKOS now for over a year, using every legal and extralegal means available to him. This saga became public with the October 2003 arrest of Russia's wealthiest man, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and it seems that Putin will not be satisfied until the state gains control over all of the country's major industries and resources, either through direct acquisition or by cowing the remainder of the oligarchs into submission. Any gains that democracy and capitalism made in the 1980s and '90s are being rapidly and systematically reversed, and I believe that Putin's appetite is not limited to Russia proper, but envisages a return to the Czarist- and Soviet-era domination of her (especially European) neighbors. If the Bush administration truly hopes to advance the cause of democracy throughout the world in the early twenty-first century, it cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the march of autocracy that is occurring 1,600 miles north of Iraq. Russian-American relations are incredibly complicated at this time, with the Muscovite interference in the Ukrainian elections, vague concurrence of our respective wars against "Muslim extremism," and mutual security concerns in East Asia; the Russian people themselves seem to value strong leadership and a national return to regional hegemony and world power over popular participation in government and guaranteed personal and economic freedoms, but, nonetheless, the White House must bring what pressure it can to bear upon Putin's nationalization of Russian industry and resources. Available policies include (where legal) targeting the American assets of Russian state-controlled firms and sheltering the assets of private firms under siege from the Putin government, advancing popular causes in formerly-Soviet republics (primarily the European ones), and strengthening the sovereign positions of such Caucasian oil-producers and -transporters as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Ukraine. I hope to see more realpolitik practiced in our peripheral relations with Russia, and hopefully the Russian people, rather than abandoning the struggle perceived to be between multibillionaire politicians on one side and multibillionaire industrialists on the other (1905, anyone?), will persistently demand a voice for themselves. WHAT A COUNTRY!