Putin: Renationalisation of Russia's Oil Industry Shows Commitment to Free Market Principles

As PLVQ recently mentioned, Russian oil behemoth Yukos was recently auctioned; the eventual buyer was Baikal Finance which was subsequently purchased by state-owned Rosneft.

BBC reports that Vladimir Putin defended the state's purchase of the seized private oil company, saying:

"Now the state, using market methods, is safeguarding its interests. I think this is quite normal..."

What a Christmas gift to see the old KGB boss disavowing statism and announcing his support for a "free market", a "market" in which the state is permitted to jail corporate CEOs it dislikes, create trumped up tax evasion charges in order to seize a company's assets, and use its courts to initiate an auction process in which it is the only competitive bidder.

It's probably time that Putin's communications outfit adopt spin that doesn't rival that of the Iraqi Information Minister during the Second Gulf War.