Gigantic Russian struggle afoot.

Richard Lourie writes about the murder of journalists, a banker, and an oil man in Russia:

The 12 journalists who have been killed in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power were probably killed to avenge something already written or to prevent the publication of something else. . . .

* * * *

A few months after Putin came to power in 2000, he convened a meeting of the oligarchs in the Kremlin and told them they could keep their ill-gotten gains if they kept out of politics. But there was another power bloc that had to be attended to -- the real mafias as opposed to the educated business types who had spotted their big chance. Former President Boris Yeltsin constantly complained that something like 40 percent of the economy was under criminal control. But Putin apparently reached some sort of modus vivendi with the criminal world. . . . Sensing the lawlessness in the land, the mafias could now be resurgent.

In any case, some sort of gigantic struggle is afoot in Russia, a new "divvying up."

"Understanding Murder in Its Own Context." By Richard Lourie, Moscow Times, 10/19/06.