[Romanov]

"Interestingly, Belarus may adopt Russian currency in a step towards unification. Evil dictators unite!"

Interesting statement. Have you been to either country to compare? Russia is hardly under a dictatorship, Belarus' is. And, Belarus is nothing compared to Turkmenistan, but we seem to let Niyazov slip under the radar.

BTW, the local legislatures in the Oblast have veto power over Putin's governor appointments. Governor's in Russia are nothing like ours and never have been. There are plenty of Western countries that do the same thing Putin is doing.

Russia has a long way to travel down the democracy road, but they are not as "authoritarian" as some in the West would make them out to be.

[gafusa]

They are working towards reunification. I was using a bit hyperbole to undesrscore Putin's recent moves, yes there are still some limits on his power, but they are disapearing. Plus his more vocal opponents have a tendency of dying. The Duma and Oblast just rubberstamp his decsions, and offer litte opposition. True they are not as bad as many of the central Asian "republics".