A Plutocrats Summit?

That said, Putin is keeping his options open to join the national plutocrats, in case their position dramatically strengthens.

But, if voting was influenced by the financial sector, the supposed party of the plutocrats, the Republicans, should have voted in unison for the bill.

As the journalist Chrystia Freeland has recently argued, a meta class of global plutocrats is emerging people who have little in common with the rest of us.

Only by finding ways to put true value on the goods we produce will we be able to sustain a middle class society, rather than one of techno plutocrats and their service sector serfs.

While no one yet knows the national plutocrats names, I believe that they are new, influential players in or associated with the Kremlin, and that they have now become bold enough to challenge both Putin and Medvedev.

If so, it is not the game itself that they have forsaken, but rather the kind of game that football has become a billion dollar business, a prestige object for louche plutocrats, and an extravagant showpiece for corrupt governments and international sporting organizations.

That said, Putin is keeping his options open to join the national plutocrats, in case their position dramatically strengthens. If he crosses over to their side, he could even become their leader and triumphantly return to the throne that he formally abandoned only recently.