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A Kremlin Cassandra
02-January-2006 @ 15:04:04
On 21 December, the day our director Ziba Norman's piece "Russia's Gas Weapon" appeared in the IHT, Russian President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov stated at his annual press conference "This year Russia has become a different country. It is no longer a democratic country. It is no longer a free country."

Six days later he resigned.

...When he formally announced his resignation Tuesday, Illarionov used the occasion to warn that the Kremlin insiders' drive to take possession of Russia's oil and natural gas assets has made possible "the selective use of energy as a weapon outside Russia."

-- from yesterday's editorial in the Boston Globe, which also appeared in the IHT: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/01/opinion/edrussia.php and http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/01/01/a_kremlin_cassandra/ (registration required)

Posted by William Arthurs

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