WMLRO.Com: Wikileaks reveals alleged Putin assets overseas

The world of diplomacy is full of dirty dealings: bribery, blackmail and spying are rife. That's why it was no surprise at all that US diplomats at the UN were required to collect information on their peers from other countries, although the nature of the information - including personal credit card account numbers - was perhaps a bit more than the "it fell into my lap" form if intelligence gathering that is the norm amongst the diplomatic community everywhere. What was surprising was that Hillary Clinton thought it necessary to remind diplomats to the UN of this duty, and to do so in writing.

And so it is less of a surprise to find that documents added to the Wikileaks library yesterday purport to show that then Russian president Putin plans to step down at the end of his second term so as not to appear to be a dictator but the work to secure victory for his part, United Russia, at the expense of the Communist Party. But the cables also show that Putin's days are potentially numbered - that he may be on the verge of being a liability to his party. The document purporting to be a cable says

"XXXXXXXXXXX said the reaction across Russia shows that for the educated electorate, the elections left a bad taste and smell. He said the Communist Party was justifiably upset about fraud, as the party,s real results should have been closer to 20 percent in some regions. XXXXXXXXXXX added that the Kremlin had resorted to all methods to secure the vote for Putin and United Russia, mobilizing the homeless, police, falsifying results in regions such as Tatarstan, Bashkiria and the North Caucasus, controlling the media and whipping up hysteria against foreign enemies. However, despite these efforts, Putin, according to XXXXXXXXXXX, suffered poor results, garnering 7 million fewer votes than he did for his presidency four years ago. He argued the regime was undergoing a real crisis as nearly 70 percent of the population, according to Levada polls, did not believe the elections to be free, and the support was one based on loyalty, not genuine support."

Against this background, it is alleged that Putin is preparing his exit strategy and that "Putin understands that under the system he has created there is no real rule of law and that at any time anyone can be arrested or businesses destroyed. Since Putin reportedly had secret assets tied up abroad (working through proxies."

But there was little new about the "no third term" statement: the Washington Post reported that Putin said he wouuld not seek a third term in a report in September 2005; the BBC carried a similar story in September 2007.

That date is interesting: an article in The Weekly Standard in the USA, in August 2007, said that a third term for Putin would demonstrate that Russia is a democracy in name only. What is most interesting about that article is first that it is written by Reuben F Johnson who appears to make a specialism out of negative stories about Russia. The second thing is that it is surprisingly close to the comments made in the alleged cable which has a date of Thursday 6 December 2007.

The cable is a summary of a conversation between Deputy Assistant Secretary David Kramer and a person whose name has been redacted.

Amazon.Com USA

Amazon.Co.UK UK

Kindle

You can read Kindle books on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, Android devices and Blackberry with free reader Apps.

or buy your Kindle device here

The overall view taken by that person is that Putin is seeking to hand-pick his successor so that there will be no inquiry into his accumulation of wealth and its placing overseas.

Putin did indeed step down as President only to become Prime Minister from where he has, some say, reinforced his position with direct control of many organs of government. President Medvedev has been widely regarded as somewhat wimpish - his only major reform, it is sometimes argued, being to change the constitution to allow Putin to return.

But in September this year he suggested that he might put himself up for re-election as president in 2012, so seeking the third term but, having had a break, being able to argue that he is not the dictator holding on to power at all costs that some claim him to be.