Just as Beijing offers the model of "one China, two systems" as a way to grant Taiwan a high degree of internal autonomy without compromising the territorial integrity of a single China, it would be prepared to countenance a number of scenarios by which Kosovo received some form of de facto independence while preserving de jure the territorial integrity of Serbia.

This policy instrument imparted BoJ de facto independence from the powerful Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The battle was precisely the sort of engagement that Russian strategists have been trying to avoid successfully, until now as they try to retake Chechnya after three years of de facto independence from Moscow.