Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Philip Stephens, in a column for The Financial Times, comments that he is struck by how isolated Russia remains despite being restored "to the ranks of world powers" by its oil, gas and autocracy.

Stephens adds that, "For all its resurgent hydrocarbon revenues and its considerable, albeit residual, military power, Moscow is essentially friendless. As for a superior system of capitalism, when was the last time you heard an international politician of any consequence hold up Russia as their chosen paradigm?"