A CHINESE MODEL FOR RUSSIA.

Writing in the April 27 Izvestiya, commentator Sergei Chugaev said that Russia’s new stability reflected a February alliance between the executive authorities and large financial and industrial groups. They agreed, Chugaev said, that “there would be no further redivision of political and economic power” in the country. Regional elites are now joining in this alliance to protect their own power. As a result, Chugaev concluded, Russia has “approached a stage in its political and economic development that could be called “Chinese’ or ‘Asian.” The only “serious threat” to this new arrangement, the commentator noted, would be elections; they could “trigger” a new struggle among these groups.

Russian Population to Decline.