|
Joan, as promised I got back to your explanation of your take on Yeltsin...My perception has been somewhat different. Effectively, there is not even a Russian government, which makes it idle to lament the passing of the (new, improved) Union. There are regional fiefdoms that find it expedient, for the time being, to acknowledge the primacy of the Kremlin, and to do business with it, and the political bosses are in competition, and sometimes cahoots, with the Mafiya. I do not think that Yeltsin created this situation, but that he has had to ride it out. If he were not a pretty good politician, the whole situation would have decayed even further, and one would see the break up of the Russian Federation and the end of Great Russian leadership in the former Republics, and a general descent into chaos and civil war.....But I am not the expert, so I will ponder your words..... |
