It is already clear that Russia will experience a systemic political crisis in 2012. The country's leaders and institutions will completely lose the people's trust by next summer. The authorities will become vacillating and weak and will flounder from one crisis to another.
The State Duma will be led by Prime MinisterVladimir Putin's crony and purported former KGB operativeSergei Naryshkin— an even more colorless speaker than his predecessor,Boris Gryzlov. The parliament will thus be fully stripped of any legitimacy in the eyes of the people and will fail to reflect both the real disposition of political forces in the country and the public mood in general.
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