The text of my remarks at the roundtable "The Role of the Opposition on the Eve of 2008"—the very one where Gerashchenko said he was ready to run for president. One of the main topics was the "bureaucratic split within the ruling elite and the opposition." This contains almost everything I think about the Russian opposition and its dreams that "the Kremlin will let power slip from its hands." One of our main questions is how the factor of an internal split within the state apparatus affects today’s opposition. Unfortunately, there is no other factor affecting the opposition. This is the main and only factor taken into account by the contemporary Russian opposition. Our opposition, generally speaking, does nothing else except gather in various places and breathlessly speculate about whether the regime will fail to consolidate; whether Medvedev will really turn out to be a weak figure; what will happen to Ivanov; whom the Kovalchuk brothers will support; and whom the Zaitsev sisters will support. It is perfectly fine when political analysts discuss all this, and S.A. Belkovsky in particular. But here, politicians are doing exactly the same thing. Politicians of every stripe: communists, nationalists, liberals. And they do nothing besides this. From this follows the model of behavior of our opposition. It is simply a matter of mechanically following the agenda. Putin says "yes"—we say "no." Putin is fighting Estonia—we support Estonia. Putin is hounding Georgians—we hang signs around our necks saying, "I am Georgian!". Read more Thanks to magic_garlic for the link