whiskey,

The fatal flaw of the Noam Chomsky critique of America is the ascription of omniscient omnipotence to the US govt. Every untoward event is explained by an evil plot to benefit some malevolent *interest.*

There is the same flaw in your suggestion that Putin is scheming to move the Russian population out of cities and into the countryside. Certainly Putin has fewer limits on his power than Bush, but, equally certainly Putin has less confidence that his orders will actually be carried out.
The current oil boom has stimulated the economies of Russia’s major cities, but the countryside remains gripped in a great depression. Decollectivization has proven almost as devastating as collectivization was. The last couple of decades have seen an incredible migration of rural people to the cities. None of them will willingly leave paid jobs and return to the despair of the Russian village.

Grand strategic moves can’t get too far ahead of banal realities. The urbanization of Russia continues apace. Putin must keep his eye on the Russian stock market, which continues to rise at every suggestion of withdrawal and to drop at every hint of more military adventures.