An article in The Financial Times by Moscow bureau chief, Charles Clover reports that critics say President Vladimir Putin’s decade-long isolation within a narrow group of confidants has begun to affect his decisions, and feeds a paranoia that seems to come naturally to former spies and security men like him and who form his inner circle.
An article in The Financial Times says that President Vladimir Putin has traditionally balanced competing factions, but tensions are rising. While it has always been Putin’s job to balance the clans, his ability to do so is looking diminished.
In an opinion editorial in The Moscow Times, Ekho Moskvy radio political talk show host Yulia Latynina argues that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s new Russian government is destined to be feckless.
In an opinion editorial in The Moscow Times Alexander Golts, deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal, says that the siloviki are in a panic in Russia.
Vladimir Putin is in election mode, notes Charles Clover in commentary for The Financial Times. He is faced with the upcoming presidential polls and mounting protests against his rule, however, he seems to be relying on the time-tested strategy of spending his way out of a crisis.
