RFE/RL follows the movements of former police major and new You Tube star Aleksei Dymovsky, whose campaign against corruption in the police forces has caused a storm of controversy.  According to an article by Brian Whitmore, Dymovsky avowed at a press conference in Moscow that he has 150 hours of incriminating material on tape, which it seems he wishes to submit directly to video addressee Vladimir Putin.  The article also raises some question marks about whether the apparently media-savvy major, who has called his whistle-blowing 'suicidal', has a political puppet master behind him.  Indeed Whitmore highlights how the ex-major's criticisms could be fueling an internal political battle: Dymovsky's allegations come at a time of intense ...

Tracing the policy movements of Presidential power-handler Vladislav Surkov is rather like witnessing a three-point turn in a dark alley - as a piece in the Power Vertical points out today.  Whilst transparency is the last thing once can expect from the Kremlin's shadowy ideologue, his moves of late are dizzying analysts.  Brian Whitmore identifies some of Surkov's recent twists - from the motives for his alleged involvement in the Duma walkout - to the matter of his oscillating stance on liberalizing political structures to aid economic development.Whitmore quotes from a Stratfor.com analysis, which suggests that Surkov's maneuvring is underpinned by a familiar motive: power rivalry.  In a recently published four-part series titled "The Kremlin Wars," Stratfor.com offers up one possible answer.According to Stratfor, the Kremlin is divided into two roughly ...