Word: putin
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...resources - and its neighbors' lack of the same - as a not-so-subtle diplomatic weapon. Last New Year's Eve, amid icy blasts of winter, Russia's state-owned Gazprom turned off the gas on democratizing Ukraine, which has often tacked the other way from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the other former Soviet republics under his thrall. This year, however, the focus is Belarus, the nouvelle Stalinist state run by Alexander Lukashenko, a man who has tried to appear to be Putin's acolyte. On Jan. 1, unless Belarus agrees to pay double what it used to for Russian...
...Putin would not need to send troops to accomplish the expansion of his Russian Federation. Khalip and other observers believe that Putin is using the price hike to pressure Lukashenko to agree to make the Russian ruble the sole currency of Belarus. More importantly, Putin wants Lukashenko to stop dragging his feet on establishing the "Allied State of Russia and Belarus" - proclaimed in 1997 - and to sign the Constitutional Act in 2007 that could lead to the formal inclusion of Belarus into the Russian Federation. That would make Putin the first reunifier of the Slavic lands lost by the previous...
...limits on Russian influence were made clear in July 2000 when Kim Jong-il pulled a fast one on Russia's then-rookie President Vladimir Putin. Back then, Kim told Putin - who visited Pyongyang en route to his debut G8 summit in Okinawa - that North Korea would scrap its missile programs if other countries agreed to blast its satellites into orbit for the purposes of "peaceful space exploration." Putin tried to play Kim's statement as a trump card in his case against Washington's plans to develop a national missile defense system. But, the following month, the North Korean...
...Russia's economy continues to grow at an annual rate of around 7%, it has become more embedded into global arrangements. In November, Russia won critical U.S. support for its bid to join the World Trade Organisation, and Putin has tried to make Russia an indispensable partner for dealing with Iran and other pressing geopolitical issues. But Russia's behavior is not yet predictable. In late September, Putin started a nasty spat over trade with neighboring Georgia, deporting hundreds of Georgians from Moscow and other Russian cities. And he pushed through new domestic legislation that restricts nongovernmental organizations operating...
...Putin's second and final term as president runs out in 2008. With Russia's oil-fueled economy booming - Putin has paid back much of the nation's foreign debt - he remains highly popular at home. But his legacy will remain controversial. Says Stephen White, professor of international relations at Glasgow University, Scotland: "As soon as the price of oil weakens, Russia's real problems - like corruption, low life expectancy and the economy's dependency on raw materials - will just get worse." Putin himself complains that his foreign critics remain mired in an outdated cold-war mindset, and exhorts Russians...