Word: putin
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...barely arrived in the United States when Russian President Vladimir V. Putin announced a sweeping series of reforms aimed at centralizing his grip on the country’s ruling apparatus. The Russian people, like Americans after 9/11, will also have to cope with a dual tragedy—a loss of life accompanied by a loss of liberty. By now, Americans should know all about the sort of measures Putin put on the table—the kind that won’t likely do much to help the war on terror, but will do a great job handing...
...federal experiment and decrease the checks on the central government built into the current constitution. And with the national legislature satisfied to remain a pliant tool of the Kremlin, that means more unchecked control for the president. But just to make sure it stays that way, Putin wants every member of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, to be elected using party lists—that is, in the ballot box voters choose a party instead of a particular candidate. This offers obvious advantages to the large, resource-laden pro-Putin parties with widespread name recognition and eliminates...
...meantime, there isn’t much President Bush can do to dissuade Putin from veering Russia off the path to liberal democracy. Bush’s post-9/11 record on civil liberties hardly gives him the credibility to criticize another nation’s sacrifices in the name of security. Even if the president did have the moral authority to rally the world’s democracies, it is not clear most Americans would care to see him do it. After Putin’s most blatant power-grab yet, the threat of de-democratization in Eastern Europe...
...Russia reels from the hostage crisis at School No. 1 in Beslan, in the republic of North Ossetia, the repercussions continue. Russian President Vladimir Putin has furiously blamed Islamic terrorists for the tragedy, defended his policies on Chechnya and, under pressure, called for a parliamentary investigation of the incident. But could quicker action to negotiate with the terrorists have averted the carnage that left at least 338 dead...
...tried to go to the school, he was stopped by the military, probably out of concern that he might be taken hostage. Dzasokhov told TIME: "A very high-ranking general from the Interior Ministry said, 'I have received orders to arrest you if you try to go.'" Meanwhile, Putin--who has long refused to negotiate with Chechen separatists--apparently sanctioned an effort to enlist an intermediary to help resolve the crisis: Aslan Maskhadov, the deposed successionist President of Chechnya. Dzasokhov told TIME that he talked to Maskhadov's London-based representative Akhmed Zakayev, and asked them to intervene. Zakayev...