A signal of great significance

[cepguu]

One more fat and hairy fist pounded the table in the solemn halls of Kremlin: so trite, so boring, so old, the din of slammed briefcases and coarse accusations aboard the creaking and sinking giant carrier Rossiya,
-- we've grown tired of it, we've lost interest in hearing more... HOWEVER, hold your finger on the remote control--

This one, if meant as more than a performance-oriented commercial break, will have profound implication for the future: an open break between Putin the Captain and Berezovs-garchy Mr. Self-made Self-proclaimed Saint of Capitalist Democracy.

Putin, the thin-lipped young Balbovnik (captain?), no matter what chilling thoughts might have flashed past his small eyes when carrying bags of jewelery for Lady Tatiana or whoever else, appeared, with each passing day, to be picking up, round by round, some heavy and slippery ropes with deadly earnestness: the ropes lead to a determination and a course of action, that RUSSIA HAS TO STAND UP AGAIN. For him, really, this is a mandated demand of history: the last chance for Russia. Provided, of course, that it is not all a theatrical show of commercial break. Last few months' development seemed to suggest an increasingly dim likelihood of it all being merely a commercial break.

Three crisis, among many others, facing Russia: inadequate activity in the productive realms of the economy, an intractible break and dangerous void in the realms of tradition, culture, and collective spiritual faiths, as well as the continuing inability to establish a well-defined and coherent structure of power and authority, with the last one hovering at the critical supreme. The thin-liped captain is quietly chopping away at the roots of the last problem: sensible and long-overdue course of action. Those who think that American concept of state autonomy ought to be applied to Russian provinces; come on already, quit joking.

Big boys and heavily-painted gals have had a continuing wild party around the ulitsi since the break-up of the dreary school known as USSR. Party has gone on for quite long enough already. No, I don't mean the Communist Party.

The captain still has a long and slippery and uphill road ahead of him. Much flexibility will be needed, and much determination and persistence. Hang on, Vladimir!

If the goddess of fate should favor the little man, the Russian stock might just start to look up again in maybe five to seven years. And the upward movement, once started, will be rapid.

Giant Eurasian aircraft carrier Rossiya set sails in not too distant future, all continents, all shores, will feel the waves.