"I am Plotting a New Russian Revolution"

From The Guardian

"The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia's ruling elite.

In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup."

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Okay, first off, I don't think it's the most intelligent thing on earth to announce to the world that you're preparing to mount a palace coup. Unless what he's trying to do is to introduce McCarthyism-like paranoia into the Russian government by making a completely false claim about paying off members of the Russian political elite. It also might be worth mentioning Russia's habit of dealing harshly with people who push them. This could be rather hazardous for Berezovsky's health.

I don't know, I agree that Putin is a power-hungry man who has more power than the President should and only cares about himself. However, Berezovsky is also a power-hungry, money-hungry idiot who only cares about himself. I don't really see where one is really any different from the other, except that one of them WAS elected to office through democratic means. Yes, I think the Russian President currently has too much power. But did he get that power through illegal means, or is the Russian public voting to amend the law to legally give him more power than he's supposed to have? Berezovsky complains that there is no democratic way to change the regime. Guess what? The regime is in place using democratic means. And I don't think that a mafioso at the head of the Russian government would be any better. (Not that Putin isn't/wasn't, but removing one and replacing it with another just seems kind of pointless.) In my opinion, whether the political power rests with a single corrupt individual or in the hands of a small handful of corrupt business tycoons, the government is in bad shape.

Of course, Berezovsky's pretty much uniformly hated in Russia, and Putin's approval ratings have stayed in the 70-85% range. I don't think he'd have much luck in converting people to his cause in the first place. As of last month, Putin had an approval rating of 81%. Can you imagine 81% of the country supporting the elected leader? And I doubt we'd ever dream of joining a revolution to remove an elected official by force, even with our current opinion of the Bush regime.

Anyway. I give Berezovsky a week to live. Idiot.