'Time of Troubles': Putin's downfall may result in 'rogue nuclear state', clans battling for wealth and power

A botched war and now a narrow escape from a coup plot — the Kremlin clock is ticking ever faster for Vladimir Putin. The stability that he brought Russia after the chaos of the 1990s is over. His reputation for competence and effectiveness is in tatters. In the savage dog-eat-dog world of Russian politics, such displays of weakness are fatal. The man who rose to power in 1999 could now be gone in months, weeks — or days. Even in Russia's rigged political system, Putin's chances of winning another six-year term in the presidential contest due in March next year…