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In Spinning Boris, Dresner and Gorton save Yeltsin's behind by running ads painting his Communist foe Zyuganov as a Stalinist who would order massive crackdowns on all civil liberties if elected.
Zyuganov never promised any such thing, but Dresner and Gorton discovered through polling that many potential voters feared this might happen nonetheless.
So they ran ads that inflamed this fear and made Zyuganov look like a Stalinist. That was how Yeltsin managed to win in 1996, despite the fact that most voters loathed him.
The only hope the so-called "Khodorkovsky camp" would have of freeing their leader and regaining their share of Russian oil wealth would be if Putin's annointed replacement, whoever it is, loses the next election.
The more Putin looked like a Stalinist, the better chance they'd have.
Just a thought. Maybe I'm too much of a mystery fan.
