it's done russia good to take time out from being the 'other gorilla'. medvedev and putin don't win beauty contests (sorry poemless!), but they have their feet very much on the ground and i trust them more than any rapture-sipping crusaders.
....to screw europe with the same capitalism we taught them, but without the sickly glaze of hypocrisy and moral posturing western leaders affect.
the difference between yeltsin, kruschov, brehznev and others in that old mould, and the new sleek, precision-machined, unsentimental face of power russia shows today is nothing short of amazing.
of course EU slowness to get off the oil/gas tit will serve to tempt the russians to swell too fast, which is another good reason to stop feeding them so many billions, keeping our fossil-fool middlemen high on the hog and calling the political shots from behind the curtain. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
