One thing puzzles me.

Vlad Putin seems intent on restoring the the Soviet Union, in all but name. No more of the old Marxist-Communist terminology, but the result is the same.

But with Russia having one of the lowest birthrates and lowest life expectancies for men, what is Putin going to rule over? With its treatment of Chechnya's Muslims, how many would want to immigrate there?

What's the Kremlin doing about the declining population?

Aside from the recent high-profile assassinations, there have been the killings, in a period of less than three months, of three bankers, one of them deputy chairman of the central bank. All were slain by contract murderers. A contender for the mayoralty in a Far Eastern town was killed at the height of the election campaign. A pro-Moscow Chechen commander was shot by a group of Chechen law enforcers in broad daylight in the middle of Moscow -- in front of passersby and a group of Moscow militiamen who, according to newspaper reports, watched from across the street. None of the perpetrators was arrested.