The most astonishing thing is that everyone—absolutely everyone—in the political crowd knew about the upcoming appointment, yet it never leaked to the media. Incredible. I keep seeing lots of angry posts in my feed about Nikitoseg. If you think belyh will find them through blog search and get upset, you're mistaken. He'll definitely find them and read them, but he won't be upset. Thanks to me. For the past two months, I've been training his nervous system by texting him little verses every day, like: *Ah Vyatka, my Vyatka, For selling out democracy, that was a bribe. *So Nikita is already past the initial shock phase of being hounded. At first he got offended, but then he just started turning away and quietly muttering something like, "You'd all rather run around to rallies... but I'm thinking about the country... it needs to be lifted off its knees..." A lot is being written about how Belykh conducted "negotiations in the Kremlin." The commentators' naivety is astonishing. It's well known that all real decisions are made not in the Kremlin, but in the Washington Obkom (a sarcastic reference to supposed U.S. control over Russian politics). That's where the negotiations took place. I don't know the details, but apparently the main condition for the appointment was Belykh's commitment to deploy missile defense elements in Kirov Region. And in general, people are writing an awful lot of nonsense. There's very little good analysis. I found only one comment that is really clear, correct, and to the point. Here. Anyway, I'll write separately about this too.