[DcifrThs]

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Id stay away from the ukranian oil trade you were talking about. Putin freaks me out and id try to stay away from that entire region right now as russia is really not a good place to be investing. It will get worse when Putin's term ends and he reveals how he plans to stay in power.

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he picked an unknown technocrat who is 66 years old as his current PM (and who is very loyal so not gunna run an opposition party if put in as president).

putin will almost certainly run out his term as president, become prime minister and either

a) change the constitution to make the president like the queen of england (so PM holds all the power)

or,
b) have something "happen" to the guy he put into power as president (the viktor whatever guy) and he then regains the presidential rank without breaking the "letter" of the constitution.

either way, he'll be holding power for a while. he has a consistently > 70% approval rating and russians don't seem to care he's an autocrat so long as oil price remains high and russia remains strong and appears to be a major player in the world. ordinary russians are thus happy and won't put up a fuss if he made himself a presidential palace in front of the kremlin (hyperbole)

the question then becomes, how is this likely to affect the rubbel (sp?)? and russia's economy in general?

my first instinct is obviously that it isn't safe for investors since an autocrat can privatize whatever etc...

Barron