But his surest way to guarantee influence, and a safe retirement, would be to pick his own successor.The question is whom Mr Kuchma will prefer.
"Military strength guarantees political influence, and we certainly wouldn't have any influence at all with an army of just 50,000.
In Afghanistan, Tehran closely cooperated with Washington to handle the post-Taliban power-sharing agreement which guaranteed Iranian influence.
But they produced a new Constitution that weakened democratic institutions and shifted power from the executive branch while guaranteeing the influence of the military.
Armed with a newspaper to guarantee political influence (Lebedev has already held meetings with both David Cameron and Boris Johnson) all it should take is an extension of his philanthropic interests, a role as patron of the arts perhaps and hey presto, a newly minted title should be his.
The two parties that have traditionally backed the Hong Kong government -- the pro-business Liberal Party and the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, or D.A.B. -- both advocated more restrictive plans for constitutional changes that would have guaranteed more influence for their politicians.
Both were politically viable, consistent with her stated desire to lead Scotland to independence, and would have guaranteed her influence over any Labour government dependent on her party's MPs.The first route was to put forward a really left-wing electoral programme: eye-watering tax hikes on the rich, an expansion of the welfare state, mass-renationalisation of utilities and infrastructure.
Therefore, in reality, the dissemination of the authority's information needs to be improved to increase its strength for guaranteeing the influence on the population after public emergencies.
Moreover, what Tehran wants in these negotiations in terms of its regional role and guaranteeing its influence beyond its borders is not acceptable, especially as such sought-after influence is based not just on controlling the fate of Iraq, but also that of Syria -- and that is unacceptable at both the Arab and Western levels at the moment.
