Can They Both Lose?

The AP reports: "Boris Berezovsky, the exiled Russian tycoon who has emerged as one of the Kremlin's most vocal opponents, called Friday for the use of force to oust President Vladimir Putin and claimed he has support from some in the country's political elite." Unfortunately for the Russian opposition, Boris Berezovsky isn't an any more admirable figure than is Putin. The extent to which he seems to have been able to get himself taken seriously in the West as an alternative to the Dread Vladimir is kind of bizarre. It's not as if he ever demonstrated any kind of principled commitment to liberal governance or political democracy until he happened to lose out in intra-Kremlin power struggles.