Vladimir Putin has a problem. He's forbidden from standing for a third consecutive presidential term by Russia's constitution. But he wants to retain at least the option of returning to power after he steps down. The solution? To find someone reliable to serve as a caretaker president until Putin can stage a triumphant comeback. That person might be newly-appointed prime minister Viktor Zubkov, or it could be someone else from Putin's inner circle. By all accounts, Putin himself hasn't made up his mind.

But, as Yulia Latynina points out in a must-read commentary in today's Moscow Times, things arent quite so simple in the "modern-day Mordor" of Moscow.