The following opinion article by Robert Amsterdam will be published in tomorrow’s edition of the International Herald Tribune.

The real power struggle By Robert Amsterdam If Europe and the West want to understand what is happening in Russia, they should send observers not to the polling stations, but to Moscow’s Basmanny Court, where the Constitution and rule of law are being unraveled on a daily basis. Here, and not in any electoral race, is where the battle over the presidential succession is playing itself out. The contenders are a group of former KGB officers known as the siloviki, from the Russian word for strong.