When Putin takes over, here is what you can expect.

[Eliot Rosewater]

http://www.economist.com/node/530327

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PRIVATE land-ownership and political freedom usually go together. But not in Russia, where it is the powers-that-be, not the people, who decide about land. It has always been that way. Before communism, there was a bit of public-spiritedness, a lot of capitalism, even the glimmerings of the rule of law. But land? Russia's rulers, whether tsars, Communists or post-Soviet bureaucrats, have never allowed their people fully to exercise the most fundamental of all property rights.
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If you are rich or upper middle class, be prepared to turn your home and land over to Putin.

Since the collapse of Soviet power in 1991, private land-ownership has been a classic Russian muddle: it exists in theory, not in practice.

[leftstreet]

1. Yeah, but, we'd get cool hats

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. And lots and lots of

[MontanaMama]

3. Isn't vodka already cheap?

Seriously, if this doesn't turn around quickly, our country could really cease to exist. All the rethugs have to do is stall progress of this investigation buying Putin the time he needs to seal the deal. The folks in power do not care that the America as we've known it is gone. What in the world could be worth trading your country?

[DBoon]

4. Catherine the Great did that to Poland

Took advantaget of weak governance to absorb Poland