Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 24 – So many in the West have been looking for signs that the most influential people around Vladimir Putin are beginning to split into opposing groups because of his war in Ukraine that they have assumed that the decision of Anatoly Chubais, known as the father of privatization, to resign his post and leave Russia is evidence of that.
That assumption may be entirely reasonable, but among Russians, it is far from the only hypothesis concerning Chubais’ actions. Surveys of Russian experts and bloggers find that among them, some accept that idea but others believe he is either behaving like Rudolf Hess or is otherwise engaged as an emissary to the West for talks about Ukraine.
None of these Russian commentators has any more evidence for these alternative propositions, but it is useful to remember them because they call into question what is rapidly becoming the received but equally unproved assumptions of people in the West. (For two useful surveys of Russian opinion on this issue, see http://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/544407 and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=623C1C5013C5D§ion_id=50A6C962A3D7C.)
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