Hell has frozen over. (But, then, it seems to do that a lot in Russia today, where the counterintuitive and even the absurd can be commonplace.) St. Petersburg Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev has received a promotion.

Now, as new deputy prime minister in charge of the housing and communal utilities sector, and with an Order of Merits Before the Fatherland of the Fourth Degree under his belt — awarded by President Vladimir Putin, he will have a great new trough at which to feed.

If any more proof were necessary that one's position in the Russian political elite depends not on results, or even on competence, but on connections, this is it.

Yakovlev's main accomplishment since he became governor has been to transform St Petersburg from a city with a reputation as being Russia's Mafia Capital to a city with a reputation for being Russia's Corruption Capital. Putin himself repeatedly berated the St. Petersburg government in the run-up to the city's 300th anniversary celebrations for massive misappropriations of funds allocated to prepare for the event.

And this is how he ispunished. One wonders what the rewards for actually being competent would be: A demotion, or a prison term perhaps? In the Looking Glass world of Russian politics, this may well be the case.

Yakovlev as a deputy prime minister is a joke of an appointment — of the kind that makes you want to laugh or, more likely, cry.

A fond farewell

A long-time and controversial player in Russian society, billionaire philanthropist George Soros has announced he will pull out of the country.

Soros has a long history here. In 1986, in the early days of then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he approached Andrei Sakharov and asked him to head the Moscow foundation he was planning to open (Sakharov declined the offer). His Open Society had already been functioning in Hungary, working to propagandize Soros' ideals of pluralistic society. Russia would later become the single-largest target for the foundation's money, with the level of contributions reaching over a billion dollars.

The Open Society foundation, like other philanthropic organizations backed by private wealth, has long been shrouded in controversy. After all, who is to say how much of Soros' well-known authoritarian behavior vis-à-vis the organization's various branches is the result of a desire to make sure funds aren't being misapplied, and how much is simply because he wants to make sure they toe the party line? His projects have also sometimes had something of a dubious nature, as when he suggested that Eastern European schools adopt an American educational model (anyone who has ever spent time in the United States and, say, Poland can tell you how ridiculous this is).

However, it is indubitable that his presence in Russia has done much-needed work at a time when the state was unwilling or unable to address the needs of its citizens. For instance, when the country had no cash with which to pay scientists or keep up laboratories, Soros came to the rescue with a sum of more than $100 million. All 33 regional universities were also hooked up to the Internet on Open Society money. Whatever one thinks of Soros, it is hard to look upon such deeds without a feeling of deep and honest gratitude.

Soros says Russia is now able to look after itself. This may or may not be true — plenty of deep problems remain. In any case, we are sorry to see him go.