Headline: Two Putins juggle three Kremlin clans Source: Euromoney Date: January 2001 Author: Ben Aris Vladimir Putin has quickly crushed Russia’s infamous oligarchs who once thrived under Boris Yeltsin, though the Family still holds some influence in Moscow. Alongside it, two new factions now share the ascendancy in the Kremlin. Sergei Ivanov leads the hardliners that Putin is using to tighten his grip on political power. German Gref leads the liberal economists charting Russia’s economic reform. A clash between them may be coming. Ben Aris reports “There are two Putins: an economic one and a political one,” says Roland Nash, senior political analyst with Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital. Widely believed at first to be a creation of “the Family” – the group of well-connected businessmen and oligarchs close to the Kremlin during the Yeltsin era – Putin has made considerable progress in consolidating his personal hold on power. |