exit uncle Roman?

Russia's dictator democratically elected Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is not a man to be trifled with. Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky dared to challenge the authority of Putin, who was President at the time. Result? Banged up in jail in 2003 on charges of embezzlement. Former security officer Alexander Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russia's Government? Famously poisoned in London. Andrei Lugovoi, the man wanted by British police in connection with Litvinenko's murder? He will never be handed over, David Cameron was told last year by current Russian puppet President Dmitry Medvedev. Badri Patarkatsishvili, the Georgian tycoon and friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky? Died in mysterious circumstances in his Surrey home shortly after worrying aloud about the threat of assassination. A film about Khodorkovsky scheduled to be shown in Moscow cinemas last year? The screenings were cancelled, apparently following calls from the Moscow Cultural Affairs Committee. Russian journalists? Murdered in alarming numbers, with resulting prosecutions virtually unknown.

To put it mildly, then, anyone with big money tied up in Russia would not want to incur the wrath of the gangsters men running the country. Alarm bells, therefore, may be ringing for some of the national asset thieves businessmen currently enjoying the fruits of their plundering labour by spending lavishly on expensively acquired sports teams around the world. A recent pronouncement by Putin might give them cause to worry.

Was it AS Monaco F.C. owner Dmitry Rybolovlev that Putin had in mind when saying that the reputation of Russian private enterprise suffers "when people see that after that unfair privatisation millions and billions are being spent on sports clubs overseas instead of investing this money into Russian sports"? Or perhaps the remark was aimed at Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets franchise. Prokhorov, after all, has had the temerity to announce that he will oppose Putin in the upcoming Presidential election. Or, just maybe, the godfather of SW London football is among the intended targets of Putin's barbed comment.

Were that the case, which would Roman Abramovich care about more? Continuing to subsidise his pet football team? Or ensuring that he stays on the right side of a man whose enemies, even the very rich and powerful ones, have a funny way of ending up dead or in jail?