On this blog we have followed very carefully the ups and downs of the clan wars, which has pitted a group of hardline siloviki led by Igor Sechin against a collection of other groups within the Kremlin power structure. Earlier this fall, the economic crisis appeared to prompt some interesting movements from within this confusing internecine struggle, as a Moscow court suddenly relented and decided to release of former deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak, who is generally seen as finance minister Alexei Kudrin’s #2 man. Whether or not this meant that Kudrin’s stock vis-à-vis Sechin was rising or falling, or whether the release of this clan war hostage meant that certain bailouts from the federal piggy bank would end up destined for friends of Sechin’s choosing, is difficult to say for sure. But what we do know is that there are many high ranking bureaucrat-businessmen very eager to tap into the stabilization fund which Kudrin has so carefully (and rightly) guarded under strict financial orthodoxy. But if the release of Storchak was viewed as good news (and really, in today’s Russia, the release of any political prisoner is good news), then today’s developments are decidedly more pessimistic. Russian Lieutenant-General, former head of the Federal Drug Control Agency, Alexander Bulbov (C), is escorted into the Moscow City Court on November 12, 2008. Bulbov is accused of illegal wire-tapping of telephone conversations as well as giving and receiving bribes. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)