How a pro-Obama diplomat discusses Russia

From an interview with Madeleine Albright in the FT:

FT: Secretary Albright, you are now a business woman as well as everything else. What parts of the world are your clients most interested in right now as business opportunities?

MA: Well, we are – particularly my firm focuses primarily on emerging markets, and part of it has to do with the fact that I have been fascinated by what is going on outside of, as a foreign policy person, outside of the United States and what the whole role of emerging markets in emerging countries are. And I think that what we specialise in is actually helping in terms of how American companies and other multinational companies can operate within emerging markets, and we see a whole lot of opportunities in the whole emerging markets.

FT: Name the top three.

MA: Well, obviously we talk about the Bric countries. I mean we spend a lot of time in China and India, Brazil, but also –

FT: You didn’t name Russia.

MA: Well, Russia is a real issue, a real question. And I have spent my entire life first studying the Soviet Union and now Russia, and I think that there are opportunities, but I think it’s a very complicated place. And I can argue this week that, for instance, things seem to look better in Russia because of commodity prices and various aspects, but politically the domestic political situation there is very complicated. And so I think there are opportunities, but one has to be very careful.

Notice also in this article further down, during the “long/short” section, Albright declares herself “long” on Vladimir Putin. It’s too bad editor Chrystia Freeland didn’t follow that with “and what about Dmitry Medvedev?”

Anyone care to second guess what her answer would have been?