"Putinomics"

International economist Anders Aslund explains what he terms "Putinomics": Tsar Vlad the Terrible's personal dictatorship runs the Russian petrodollar-fueled economy through clans, in the form of state corporations, reclaiming privatized assets through bribery, extortion, etc.   Easy money is pumping inflation into the economic equation, and Russia will need rising oil prices to stay on the treadmill.  A bumpy ride ahead indeed, with Vlad coasting on the payoff from market reforms in the 1990s, and enjoying the perks of power personified.