let me go back to richard sakwa.try at ease with itself at the moment. what sort of state is it in? it is certainly not as bad as some people put out. clearly with sanctions it is feeling a lot of pressure from outside. internally, after a session which lasted a couple of years, last year economic growth resumed, not huge, 1.5%, living standards beginning to creep up. so the feeling is it has turned a corner, as well now with putin re—elected for another six years. but has it achieved anything, the putin decades, the putin years? population of 145 million or so, an economy not materially very different to the uk, in size. incredibly depended on natural resources. it is as though they have spent a lot of money, natural oil money, for the last 20 years, putin has put a lot in his bag, and that is all... well, not quite. the government has been very careful since their last finance minister, and a lot of this money went into the reserves, and wealth funds. it was not just stolen or hidden away. and, yes, a lot has happe