states, and supports the elimination of internal national borders within the Russian Federation. 2008 Russian-Georgian War Following the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, Zlobin was one of the few American political experts to openly support the independence of Abkhazia. Rejecting the notion that Abkhazia was a Russian puppet state, Zlobin argued that Abkhazian independence instead coincided with Russian interests by hindering Georgia’s accession to NATO. Corruption in Russia Zlobin is a harsh critic of Russian policy despite being known to frequently interact with many of the country’s high-ranking officials. He has written widely about corruption within the country's political and business elite and has said that the absence of an effective judicial system is the main threat to Russian stability. In 2011, he described the Russian system as being run by “secretive and highly influential clans, without the consent of which no important economic or political decision in the country can be made or implemented.” Zlobin concluded that the return of clan politics to Russia was corrupting both the domestic system and the global institutions in which Russia took part. Meetings with Russian leaders Zlobin has interacted with Russia’s leaders on numerous occasions, often within the framework of the Valdai Discussion Club. For example, in 2005, he was given a signed memo by Vladimir Putin stating that the latter wouldn’t run for president in 2008 and would not change the constitution in order to allow himself to run for a consecutive third term. In 2008, Zlobin asked Putin how long the latter was planning to remain prime minister; Putin replied that he would remain in that post as long as “God wills." In 2009, in response to Zlobin’s question about whether he would compete with Dmitry Medvedev in the 2012 presidential elections, Putin announced that he and Medvedev would not run against each other but would rather “sit down and talk it over.” Medvedev confirmed these words shortly thereafter. In the fall of 2011, Putin was asked by Zlobin why his political system was unsuccessful at generating young political leaders. Putin declared that the leaders were there, although he couldn’t name anyone but Dmitry Medvedev as an example. During a Q&A with then-presidential candidate Vladimir Putin in February 2012, Zlobin raised the question of why Russia had no political allies in the world. Putin gave a vague reply that the fact that the 2014 Winter Olympics were voted to take place in