Free Republic

Dmitry Medvedev says he would not rule out running again for president in 2012 elections, keeping up the uncertainty about the future political intentions of Russia's ruling duo. Mr Medvedev's refusal to dismiss the idea of a second term came amid frenzied speculation about the intentions of strongman prime minister Vladimir Putin, who many believe is plotting a return to the Kremlim. "Some time ago I did not intend to stand for president," Mr Medvedev said today, referring to his emergence from relative obscurity to sweep the 2008 polls. "But fate worked out that way and therefore I'm not going...

I think that it has been well established that "conservatives" or whatever it is they call themselves these days (e.g., storm troopers) in matters concerning politics value little more than the state's power in which they imagine themselves to participate and the supposed glory that war and domestic national securitism brings to them. Now strictly speaking this is a delusion, because their only access to power lies in the accidental agreement of their opinions with those of the managers of the state. This access will evaporate as soon as the state does something that displeases our conservatives. It is always...