RH 7.1/Fail upgrading to Python2: Why?

[Frederic Faure]

Hi,

	I did read the archives, and also find that others failed
installing Python2 through RPMs because of failed dependencies
(Personally, I need to do this because Zope 2.4 requires Python2.):

EXHIBIT A
-------------------------------------------------------
# ldconfig -v | grep cry
        libcrypt.so.1 -> libcrypt-2.2.2.so
        libcrypto.so.1 -> libcrypto.so.0.9.6
        libk5crypto.so.3 -> libk5crypto.so.3.0

# ldconfig -v | grep ssl
        libkssl.so.2 -> libkssl.so.2.0.0
        libssl.so.1 -> libssl.so.0.9.6

# rpm -Uvh --test python2-2.1-6.i386.rpm 
error: failed dependencies:
        libcrypto.so.0.9.6   is needed by python2-2.1-6
        libssl.so.0.9.6   is needed by python2-2.1-6

FWIW, I also added a symlink between /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.6 and
/lib/libssl.so.9.6, and ran ldconfig to update its cache, with no
change.

EXHIBIT B
-------------------------------------------------------
Next, someone in this ng suggested adding openssl95a because it would
install symlinks libssl.so.0 and libcrypto.so.0... The python2 RPM
still complains:

# rpm -Uvh openssl095a-0.9.5a-9.i386.rpm

# ldconfig -v | grep ssl
        libssl.so.0 -> libssl.so.0.9.5a
        libkssl.so.2 -> libkssl.so.2.0.0
        libssl.so.1 -> libssl.so.0.9.6

# ldconfig -v | grep cry 
        libcrypt.so.1 -> libcrypt-2.2.2.so
        libcrypto.so.0 -> libcrypto.so.0.9.5a
        libcrypto.so.1 -> libcrypto.so.0.9.6
        libk5crypto.so.3 -> libk5crypto.so.3.0

# rpm -Uvh --test python2-2.1-6.i386.rpm 
error: failed dependencies:
        libcrypto.so.0.9.6   is needed by python2-2.1-6
        libssl.so.0.9.6   is needed by python2-2.1-6

QUESTION
------------------------------
=> Since this kind of thing happens every so often with RPM, does
anyone know where it comes from? There has to be a logical explanation
for this behavior, especially since it occurs on a clean and recently
installed host.
If the RPM database knows that a given library is available, and ld
also knows about it through its cache, what can possibly keep an RPM
complaining?

=> I see that python2-2.1-6.i386.rpm installs /usr/bin/python2 and
/usr/bin/python2.1 instead of plain "python", which I assume Zope
expects. 
Can I just create a symlink from python2 to python with no
side-effects for older applications that expect to work with python1?

Puzzled
FF.