From “the NY Times summary”:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29cables.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all of the Wikileaks release:
bq. …while Mr. Putin enjoys supremacy over all other public figures in Russia, he is undermined by an unmanageable bureaucracy that often ignores his edicts.”
From a “recent speech”:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8163394/John-Major-The-Limits-of-Power.html by John Major:
bq. The uncomfortable truth is that the limits of power for politicians are narrower than many suppose.