Putin’s Czar Power, Bezos’s NBA Aspirations, A $364M Art Backstop

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting.

Today, we lead with Teddy Schleifer’s semi-scientific, mid-cycle power ranking of the nouveau riche political megadonors who are trending up (Marissa Mayer, Vinod Khosla) and down (Jan Koum, Peter Thiel) during this strange election season.

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe chronicles the tragic irony surrounding Putin’s fifth coronation. Julia Alexander brilliantly homes in on the existential threat facing streaming’s vMVPD industry. Marion Maneker illuminates an ingenious $364 million art auction house backup plan. And on The Powers That Be, John Ourand and Peter Hamby dig into how Netflix’s star-studded Tom Brady roast came together and what it signals about the company’s live sports ambitions.

TEDDY SCHLEIFER

A semi-scientific mid-cycle power ranking of who’s trending up (Marissa Mayer, Vinod Khosla), who’s trending down (Jan Koum, Peter Thiel), and who’s massively overhyped among the nouveau riche tech money crowd.

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JULIA IOFFE

Vladimir Putin’s fifth inauguration speech confirms that the soft authoritarian is now a hard fascist, more isolated but also more assured than ever in his superiority above his subjects, the inevitability of victory in Ukraine, and his almost divine right to rule Russia as he sees fit.

JULIA ALEXANDER

As the biggest streaming players move into advertising and go all-in on sports, the vMVPD industry looks increasingly imperiled—outside of a few players like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, among others.

MARION MANEKER

Amid this unpredictable art market, nearly a quarter of the work coming to auction has already been guaranteed by third-party bidders. Is that a feat of financial engineering or a sign of the state of the confidence game?