The pamphlet reads: Putin's Plan. It is victory for Russia. It is the continuation of progress. It is prosperity for every Russian citizen.

Early this afternoon, as I was walking away from the Other Russia show at the Central Election Commission near Red Square—where I witnessed a rather haggard Christian Amanpour trying to hog the Kasparov Express bandwagon, as he, Limonov, and a former Duma deputy presented Other Russia’s parliamentary list to the CEC— I passed a couple of kids sitting on a granite slab next to the sidewalk, with an open box between them. Inside the box, and scattered around them, were fresh color pamphlets, “Putin’s Plan.” With the Unity Party logo on top.

There’s been some rumor-rumbling this week about the whole “Putin’s Plan” ad campaign, and by late this afternoon, just a few hours after Kasparov & Co. submitted their doomed parliamentary list, Putin announced his plan for staying in power: he’s going to head the Unity Party ticket—Russia’s biggest Duma faction by far—and get himself named Prime Minister.

 The great irony here is that Putin’s fiercest opponents, from Khodorkovsky to Kasparov and others, have long argued that Russia’s problem constitutionally is that it puts nearly all power in the hands of the president, whether the corrupt, bungling Yeltsin, or the corrupt, severe Putin. Both Khodorkovsky and Kasparov let it be known that they believed they could civilize Russia, but both knew that they didn’t stand a chance of winning the presidency, in part because of their ethnicity, in part because they’re far too Western-leaning and out-of-touch with Ivan Ivanovich.

Kasparov trying hard to contain his disgust as he is interviewed by Amanpour.

Khodorkovsky’s plan to take power rested on gaining enough influence with Russia’s Duma to get them to change the constitution, weaken the powers of the presidency, turn Russia into a parliamentary republic like Britain or Germany, and put all power into the hands of the prime minister, who is not directly elected. Kasparov has argued for the same system, both publicly and privately.

Well, it looks like Putin—the future Prime Minister Putin— has been listening. Indeed even in the spring of 2003, at the peak of his struggle with Khodorkovsky, Putin suggested that such a parliamentary system could be a good idea for Russia.

No one expected that this plan for taking power from Putin could be turned on its head, and used instead to keep Putin in power.

This isn’t just eye-rah-nik…it is, in the words of Stewie, so deliciously evil it just has to be fattening.

—Mark Ames