Vladimir III?

摘要

On the face of it, he seems humiliat-ingly weak. Vladimir Putin's intervention in Ukraine's election was one of his biggest mistakes as Russia's president. If Victor Yushchenko wins Ukraine's re-vote on December 26th, as seems likely (see next article), the waning of Russia's sway in its erstwhile "sphere of influence" will be embarrassingly obvious. At home, the seemingly interminable Yukos saga may be reaching its terminus. Yet the Kremlin's campaign against what was Russia's biggest oil company has been so mishandled that, even as it has dramatised Mr Putin's authority, it has also made him look amateurish and indecisive. Appearances can be misleading, however. Ukraine's "orange revolution" may yet inspire independent forces elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. In Abkhazia, a breakaway micro-state in Georgia that is heavily dependent on Moscow, October's "presidential" vote is to be re-run, after Mr Putin's man apparently lost. But Russian liberals hoping for a revolution of their own face a long wait. Mr Putin's shadow post-Soviet empire may look more tenebrous than ever. Yet in Russia itself, the emperor still has clothes.