Word: putin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Estemirova's determined efforts over the past decade to uncover and document extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances and kidnappings in Chechnya had made her many enemies, including Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's Kremlin-backed President. She had also become a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who as President presided over the Second Chechen War, which began in 1999 and ended in 2002. (See pictures of Putin...
...officer in Chechnya. On the day of her murder, a 600-page report that she had helped research was released by Russian human-rights groups. The report exhaustively documents atrocities committed by all sides during the two Chechen wars and concludes that there is sufficient evidence to demand that Putin, among other officials, be held to account for war crimes carried out while he was in power...
...Moscow, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev responded swiftly to news of Estemirova's murder, in sharp contrast to the three-day silence from then President Putin that followed the killing of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a friend and colleague of Estemirova's. Medvedev expressed "indignation" and said the government would "take all necessary measures" to solve the crime. (Read "Murder, Russian-Style: Political Assassination...
Some Russians opposed to Putin believe a pointed display of respect by Obama could boost Medvedev. That, they say, would make it easier for the Russian President to distance himself from Putin's ironfisted policies. It may, of course, be wishful thinking to believe that Medvedev can ever really be his own man, much less that he can put aside the suspicion of decades and forge a real partnership with the U.S. But it's worth a try. For this truth hasn't changed since the end of the Cold War: when Russia and the U.S. don't get along...
...Russia's economic fortunes is particularly painful. Since 1998 - the year of Russia's last financial crisis - the economy has expanded eight-fold. As oil prices rocketed, so did the country's self-confidence. Not content with presiding over the economic boom, then President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin vowed to restore his country's great power status. Talk about a partnership with the West gave way to belligerent statements about a new Cold War. In the summer of 2008, Russian tanks trundled into Georgia. In early 2009, a dispute with neighboring Ukraine led Russia to cut off gas flows...