The situation in Russia has changed so much in recent weeks that the presidential election campaign has almost begun to resemble a real political contest.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would have a difficult time complying with some of the demands put forward by protesters in recent rallies — such as "Putin resign!" — but implementing others would actually be to his benefit.

What would make for an interesting presidential election campaign? Choice.

Years ago a renowned University of Chicago political scientist formulated an empirical law that he dubbed the "threshold of democracy." He suggested that if the per capita income in a country reaches a certain level – $13,500 at today's prices — democracy in that country would remain stable.

As elections approach, every incumbent politician or party likes to say: "It is best not to trade horses in midstream." And those who want to come to power always say, "The time has come for change."

Someone wrote in astonishment that the Russian blogosphere barely discusses the "case of the century" — the lawsuit that self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky filed against fellow tycoon Roman Abramovich with the High Court in London. The "gray cardinal of the Kremlin" — as the Financial Times dubbed Berezovsky in the 1990s — filed charges against Abramovich, one of the richest Russians and a fellow resident of London.

In an interview with the Dozhd television channel, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that he did not know what was bad about former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the period of stagnation under his rule. And the visit by President Dmitry Medvedev to the journalism department at Moscow State University perfectly illustrated the key elements of that stagnation for all to see.

In early September, Natasha, my former high school classmate, gave birth to her fourth child. If everything turns out OK, in one month she will return to her job teaching first- and eighth-grade math.

On Sept. 15, Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Klepach, one of the most respected macroeconomists in Russia, said the Russian ruble exchange rate is overvalued by at least 10 percent. On Friday, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev responded: "There is no reason to believe that the ruble is either overvalued or undervalued."

The News of the World tabloid has been shut down after the phone-hacking scandal, executives have resigned, and several former directors and editors have been arrested and released on bail.  But can anything be said in defense of the paper and its management?

Russian authorities took a major step in early July toward fulfilling their goal of creating an international financial center in Moscow. In fact, it was possibly the most significant step since the idea was first announced. Namely, they published the results of a public review of the case concerning the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a pretrial detention center.

In many autocratic countries, the opposition's goal is to shake down the political institutions that the ruling elite have constructed to maintain their control. In Russia, it would seem that the opposite is true.

In one of the sessions on Saturday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an important topic of discussion was a new government financial aid program for Russian university students who are accepted at foreign universities.

The New York Times reported Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama would appoint his top adviser on Russia and Eurasia, Michael McFaul, as the new ambassador to Moscow. It is an interesting choice, indeed.

The conflict over Domodedovo Airport that has been raging for the past month took a new turn when the Audit Chamber released a report stating it was "unacceptable" that the facility is owned by an offshore company.

At his meeting with the director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday, President Dmitry Medvedev said half of the work had been completed toward transforming Moscow into an international financial capital.  That task has something in common with putting a man in space or landing a probe on Mars:  The final result is not as important as the steps involved in the process.

President Dmitry Medvedev's speech last week in Magnitogorsk would have made a good start for his 2012 presidential election campaign except for one thing: There are no real elections in Russia.

Anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny wrote in his blog last week that he opposed the draft of a new law to regulate state tenders prepared by the Economic Development Ministry and the Higher School of Economics. In response, Yaroslav Kuzminov challenged Navalny to a public debate.

On March 2, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev turned 80. If the history books were to judge him strictly for his results while in office, he would be deemed a tragic figure in history. Not only did he fail to resolve the problems facing the country, but the country itself ceased to exist.

I have stopped reading comments from political scientists and commentators who use the word "elections" without putting it in quotation marks or without qualifying statements as to how elections are manipulated in Russia.
What happens in Russia has long ago ceased to have any semblance to true elections.

The main task of the new privatization program is to create conditions in which companies compete on the open market and not in the political arena. Achieving this would result in higher quality goods and services at lower prices than consumers now pay.

On Tuesday, the RTS Index closed at 1,863. This is way up from its lowest level during the crisis, when it sunk to 498 in January 2009. It is clear that Russia is once again in favor with investors. Therefore, it is important that we learn the lessons from the consequences of previous capital inflows.

In all the years that I have been writing this column, I’ve never seen a year more lacking in economic developments than 2010. The government did not implement a single economic reform during the past 12 months, and all the hype over modernization remained empty words.

There are some people who love making speeches about Russia’s so-called power vertical and democratic institutions, and there are other people who would benefit greatly from them in their daily occupations — if only the vertical and democratic institutions actually existed.

Every politician knows there is nothing better than diminished expectations. When ordinary citizens have given up believing that their well-being depends on the daily efforts of the authorities, then those officials lose any incentive to perform their duties properly.

Last week, a political leader who had spent the past seven years in custody was set free. That leader once began a speech with these words: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

In Russia, whenever someone talks about the social responsibility of business, it almost always means that a particular firm should foot the bill for something that benefits society.

Sergei Sobyanin will occupy the second-highest post in the country when he is sworn in as mayor of Moscow on Thursday. The first is either the president or the prime minister, depending on which of them is calling the shots.

Reading tea leaves — or coffee grounds if you happen to be in Russia — won’t help anyone guess who the next mayor of Moscow will be. My prediction is that our leaders will opt for the candidate who is least likely to make a play for the Kremlin in the future.

Bloggers have been crying with laughter over recent translations on the Russian Academy of Sciences' web site. The episode was just one more blow to the reputation of the academy’s leadership and highlighted a deeper problem.