[RussianConservative]

Funny thing is, maybe Putin can "get away" with things because 70%+ public like him...wonder why consider he turn Russia around. At this point, Communist party consider great victory when they recruit 18,000 member per year (they probably loose twice to death of old age) and now have only 500K members (or one third one percent of Russians).

[Dog Gone]

Russia still has a long way to go in its transistion from a government-directed economy to a free market economy. It has made enormous progress, but it will take some time.

Foreign investment in Russia has begun on a limited basis, and when companies believe adequate safeguards exist to protect those investments, more will occur.