The board of directors at General Motors made a surprise decision cancelling theplannedsaleof Opel, the carmaker'sEuropeanarm, toMagna, a car-parts supplier, andSberbank, a big Russianbank.
If this can be linked to Turkmenistan, and if Mr Berdymuhammedov can resist Russian arm-twisting, then his country could become a big beneficiary of Russia's strained relations with Ukraine and of the uncertainty bedevilling Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Robertson inadvertently gave Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez exactly what he wanted - the specter of a US plot to assassinate him - as an excuse to ratchet up repression and arm his regime with Russian-built offensive weapons, he has forced the public, the media, and the White House to confront the problem while there is still time to act.