by Vladimir who? I appreciate that most readers have never heard of this individual. But this is the sign of a major new shift in the situation in Russia. To make clear why this is important: until quite recently Vladimir Mau was the top economic advisor of V.V. Putin. Just prior to his arrest, he has just been reelected to the Board of Gazprom, the most important state-owned company in Russia. Apparently his arrest is part of a broader wave of arrests of prominent Russians who have apparently criticized the current policy of Putin. But I do not know what Mau said or did that led to this arrest. For all I had heard and knew he was a strong Putin supporter.This is arguably the fuller confirmation of an older report that had been floating around for several years. This report was that in the
Topics:
Barkley Rosser considers the following as important:
This could be interesting, too:
Matias Vernengo writes Milei’s Psycho Shock Therapy
Bill Haskell writes Population Growth Outcomes
Robert Vienneau writes Books After Marx
Joel Eissenberg writes Undocumented labor: solutions, not scapegoating
Vladimir who? I appreciate that most readers have never heard of this individual. But this is the sign of a major new shift in the situation in Russia. To make clear why this is important: until quite recently Vladimir Mau was the top economic advisor of V.V. Putin. Just prior to his arrest, he has just been reelected to the Board of Gazprom, the most important state-owned company in Russia. Apparently his arrest is part of a broader wave of arrests of prominent Russians who have apparently criticized the current policy of Putin. But I do not know what Mau said or did that led to this arrest. For all I had heard and knew he was a strong Putin supporter.
This is arguably the fuller confirmation of an older report that had been floating around for several years. This report was that in the past Putin paid attention to economic advisors such as Mau, for better or worse, with some of us, frankly, not particularly big fans of Mau. But he also paid attention to others as well, such as super capable Central Bank President, Elvira Naibullina, who reportedly attempted to resign from her position, but was blocked from doing so by Putin himself. But her husband has managed to get himself out of running the Higher Economic School of Economics ("Vwishka" for insiders). I have only the greatest worry and concern and sympathy for these people at this time, especially given this recent arrest of Mau.
What seems to have happened is that Putin stopped paying attention to his economic advisors, led by Mau, probably about the time of the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led him to retreating from most public interactions. So, reportedly, instead of economic advisors like Mau, he concentrated on an inner circle following the essentially fascistic "Eurasianist" views of people like llya Ilyugin and more importantly, Alexander Dugin, whose 1997 book on this stuff is now required reading by Russian senior military officers.
Barkley Rosser
Barkley Rosser