There is much more to be said about Russian Capitalism than what a token genuflection toward the concept of a Market economy would suggest - that free markets will lead to Russia's downfall.

Uh uh. They aren't downfalling ...

First, we delude ourselves to think we are not under the increasing influence of a much more powerful oligarchy than that which is your subject here.

Second, it is Berezovsky ... and his Anglo Dutch Financier Oligarchy friends ... who have recently called for a violent overthrow of the Russian government apparatus and who are supporting Kasparov (our hero), from his exiled perch in the City of London.

Third, the entirety of South America has sent the IMF packing -and are experiencing a true renaissance in their economies and politics. They will increasingly find Russia to be a much more favroable trading partner. Your citations miss what's important.

As I read the Regression Analysis post I sometimes forgot that it wasn't about the dupes among us in the U.S.

Putin is securing the capital Russia needs to be the driver of efficient production in strategic areas and tactical infrastructure improvement … areas where "capitalists, errr, "risk" takers are too afraid to plod.

Can there really be any confusion as to why Ukraine is so divided again. The West’s Timoshenko is doing Cheney’s bidding, Yanukovich is resurgent doing Putin’s bidding, and the Our Ukraine Party of Yushenko, justified in trying to resurrect their ancient identity as the progenitor of all things “Rus”, finds his country plundered first by Russia agreeing to disarm, then by having its remaining industry sacked by the West – it has no capacity to produce even for itself. Daughter Russia looks better and better in comparison. Precisely because of Putin’s foresightedness. They understand the ultimate result of the free ride mentality of free market promises. Remember, Marx was a British Oligarchy plant.

Did they add in the type of severance pay Khodorkovsky gave his employees who tried to save their souls and get out of his enterprise?

Was that factored into the regression analysis?

People who left their jobs at Yukos ended up dying for it.

This is really sad. The so-called libertarians are standing up for a man who is a cross between Tony Soprano and Ken Lay.

A sad day for liberty when a cold blooded killer becomes some kind of mythical folk hero of freedom.

This is a sad day in many respects. It's sad that Russians want less freedom, and it's sad that a pack of greedy amoral murderers are being treated like victims.

The number of former employees of each oligarch who ended up dying from bombs or gunshot wounds shortly after leaving employment.

I would really like to see that study done. That would be really interesting.

The development of Russian capitalism was so horribly violent and so many people were murdered, not just criminals but ordinary people who stood in the way of these men or learned too much about them in the course of employment.

How could anyone ignore that fact in an analysis of why some of them ended up in prison and others did not?

These analyses must be paid for by someone for whom human life means absolutely nothing.

Thanks for these citations, Andrew.

I'm working on this book by Stanislav Menshikov (2004, English version published in 2007), best known as Russia's American Economy analyst. They really want to work with us (or rather, want to allow us to work with them), but not our imperial version.

Spacecabooie, if you're going to post four straight times on the piece, at least do them all under your own name.

Andrew, what's up with giving that first piece a star? It's barely coherent, much less insightful. Your standards are usually better.

Your judgement is irrelevant to me - based on your intuition as it is.

I have now posted here thrice.

With extremely little attention to detail, much less eloquence, and coherence - none whatsoever. Typed essentially with one eye to the door, one hand on this computer, a phone at the ear, a cellphone at the mouth, the other hand at another keyboard, and a foot at the ready to ...

Yet my point, one infinitely more worthy of the space in which it appears than petty insult, even if made largely incoherently, has been made.

The original goal was to simply post the citation to the fascinating, and very well written, book appearing in Post #2. Now surely you'll have even less trouble remembering the title.