Mike,

Volodya just finished 8 years as president of the Russian Federation. We can see that he has successfully nationalized the energy industry, he has successfully stifled independent media, he has successfully prevented the development of independent political parties. (Can you name Putin’s party? What are its philosophical principles?) Volodya has taken the right to elect provincial governors from the people and taken it into his own hands as a “national security measure.” He has criminalized scientific and cultural exchanges between Russian institutions and their foreign counterparts. (I have personal experience of this: my Russian colleagues are more affluent now, but dramatically more taciturn and less cooperative than during Yeltsin’s time.)

Putin’s Russia has enjoyed a “sugar high” due to the high price of oil.

However, if I should decide to boycott Russian products, I have the problem that there are NO Russian products available to me that I would otherwise purchase. Nichevo. Nada. Not a one. Eighteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union and Russia’s chief exports remain oil and weapons.

Volodya has not reformed the economy. He has been the beneficiary of rising commodity prices. Russia is a banana republic and Volodya Putin is a caudillo.