Who to blame, may well be the question crossing the collective mind of the United Russia clan, after the whipping the party’s majority received on Sunday.  Putin and Medvedev are obvious targets, but what of the man who, certain analysts (and Mikhail Prokhorov) argue, really pulls the strings.  Vladislav Surkov, widely credited as the architect of managed democracy, has given a rare interview to blogger Sergie Minayev.  Via the Wall Street Journal, here is the top political strategist’s view on what went wrong (nothing, apparently):

“For a party that turned out to be in power during a deep global economic crisis, this is a good result,” he said. “Add to that the painful but necessary reforms of the (Interior Ministry) and army, plus the forced increase in taxes on business needed to preserve social benefits, then one can say this is a very good result.”