Many commentators are today arguing that the Putin regime is retreating from the programme of 'economic liberalism'. But is that really the case?
A key example cited was the break up of the oil company Yukos in order to pay tax revenues owed to the Russian state.
Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' oil producing subsidiary, was effectively nationalised by the back door. In December Yuganskneftegaz was sold for about €5bn or half its estimated value to Baikal Finance, previously unknown company. Baikal Finance in turn was quickly bought up by Rosneft, the Russian state owned oil company.
In addition to the break up of Yukos there has been the continued persecution of many of the so-called oligarchs. Forbes magazine has estimated the personal wealth of Mikhail Khordorkovsky, Russia's richest individual, at somewhere in the region of US$15bn.
Today though Mikhail Khordorkovsky is in jail where he has been since October 2003 on suspicion of tax fraud.
The oligarchs are those individuals who profited from the wave of privatisations of the Russian economy in the
Their wealth came from buying state owned companies usually at knock down prices. In Britain the best known oligarch Roman Abramovich.
With personal wealth in excess of £6bn he was able to buy Chelsea Football Club -mere pocket money for him.
At one level the persecution of the oligarchy by the Putin regime is deeply populist.
The destruction of socialised property relations and the restoration of capitalism saw a substantial decline in the living standards of the vast majority of Russians, as elsewhere in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Once average Russian life expectancy was on a par with the West European countries, now it is now less than sixty ycals
Throughout Russia there is definite anger and resentment at the fact that a small minority have gained substantially from the market reforms whilst the overwhelming majority have suffered.
The measures taken against the oligarchy are therefore in the wars against Chechnya.
Recently Putin was forced into a serious retreat on the domestic front. Pensioners rallies throughout Russia succeeded in forcing the government to double a proposed increase in pensions.
The original increase itself had been granted only as part of an inadequate compensation in a pension package which took away from pensioners of benefits such as free healthcare and travel.
There is also the recent