Too often, though, he resorts to tribal politics, in a way that seems both scheming and incompetent.

尽管他常采取部落政策，但是似乎都是在做无用功。

youdao

Many Russian politicians are already far too beholden to coteries of scheming tycoons, who, thanks partly to the coarse system of privatisation used a few years ago, have been the biggest beneficiaries of Russia's chaotic switch to the market.

ECONOMIST: The strange rage of Boris Yeltsin