It's a very interesting proposal and a different twist on what's happening at the moment - but I think it's a dangerous game for even Putin to play. Here in the UK and in the US, the price of petrol and gas is going through the roof. That's a massive inconvenience and it's going to destabilise a lot of the European democracies even further.

But it's a race... because the economic sanctions have cut Oligarchs away from their fortunes, Russian media starlets away from their earnings and the average Russian person can't get paid any more. Putin presumes he can hold power - and I think he can, for a while... but this generation of Russians, who have become somewhat westernised via mass media since the 1990s, are not as keen to fall willingly behind an iron curtain as their grandparents may have been. Putin is 70, he did well in the KGB - many younger than him, or those who suffered through Stalin, Kruschev et al will resist a backslide, we're seeing this play out in places like St Petersburg.

Putin's biggest threat isn't the West. Putin's biggest threat is now everyone around Putin. Russia may be too big to fail - but Putin isn't. It has a little bit of the 1917 about it at the moment - we're just waiting for a bearded monk to show up.

Great article. Thought provoking. :o)