Word: putin
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...VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President, responding to Vice President Dick Cheney's accusations that Russia is cutting back on democracy...
...contrast could not be more marked between Putin's increasingly assertive stance vis-a-vis the U.S. and the pliant posture of Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin was always more popular in the West than he was among his countrymen, especially as they felt the effects of his reforms on their standard of living and watched their country's geopolitical status plummet in as little as five years from that of superpower to that of a harmless family drunk...
...under Yeltsin that Russia was first invited to join the G8, not because of any economic power on Russia's part, but as a symbolic gesture to help strengthen him at home against the communist opposition. Putin, on the other hand, will host the G8 in St. Petersburg in July as the leader of the world's second largest oil producer at a time when the game of international relations may be increasingly defined by competition for access to hydrocarbons...
...Rather than seeing himself as inherently aligned with the West, Putin is willing to challenge the U.S. on issues ranging from Iran to Hamas. Nor is Russia's reluctance to support the U.S.-European strategy of threatening sanctions against Iran simply a byproduct of narrow concerns over its own investments there. Instead, it reflects a view that U.S. influence is inimical to Moscow's own interests, particularly in the former Soviet states. Curbing that influence has become a goal in and of itself - though aligning with Iran, another powerful oil producer, substantially increases Russia's potential influence, particularly in Asia...
...difference between the Yeltsin and Putin eras isn't simply based on the outlook of each leader: The 400% increase in world oil prices since Yeltsin left office has made a world of difference to the possibilities open to Russia's foreign policy. Yeltsin presided over a once great power reduced to penury and dependent on IMF handouts; Putin is running a booming oil state, which earned around $113 billion from oil exports last year (and a further $30 billion from natural gas exports). Which is why rising global demand for oil created by economic growth may be bad news...