"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," Winston Churchill told his listeners in a radio broadcast in October 1939.
Much the same can be said about Saudi Arabia — one of the most compulsively secretive countries in the world at the start of the 21st century.
Almost nothing is known about how the kingdom's rulers reach decisions on political and economic reform, foreign policy and oil market strategy (or indeed about anything else).