Word: putin
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Having taken at least some lessons from U.S. politicians, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his critics abroad are undermining his country's battle against terrorism. In a rare three-and-one-half hour meeting with foreign scholars and journalists, including TIME, Putin Monday claimed that "some circles" in the West were encouraging separatist movements in Chechnya and other parts of the troubled Caucasus region on Russia's southern borders in order to keep Russia weak and distracted. He accused unidentified politicians, security services and commentators in several countries, including the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K., of meddling...
...meeting with reporters in the presidential compound at Novo Ogarevo near Moscow, lasted until 12:30 a.m. Putin had kept out of public view during the crisis, emerging only after the bloody climax for a quick flight to Beslan to meet with survivors. During a ten-minute televised address to the nation last weekend, the normally impassive president had trouble containing his emotions...
...Putin managed to relax during the meeting, and he even - offered his support for President George W. Bush's re-election. Asked about a recent poll that suggested seven percent of Russians wanted to see Bush elected, while 25 percent supported Kerry (the remainder were undecided or uninterested), Putin raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "Yes, but some of the most influential Russians are among that seven percent...
...Russians, the Kremlin's initial response to last Tuesday's nearly simultaneous plane crashes seemed all too familiar: another example of President Vladimir Putin's state of denial over the unflattering reality of the war in Chechnya. The catastrophe, which killed 90 people, occurred just a few days before a disputed presidential election in that breakaway republic; the two flights had departed from the same Moscow airport; the planes crashed within a minute of each other; eyewitness reports suggested that an explosion had downed one of the planes; and a hijack distress call preceded the crash of the other plane...
...group with ties to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But why the official reluctance to consider the most obvious of explanations? Perhaps because, two years after guerrillas took 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater in a botched operation, the incident makes it much harder for Putin to play his favorite role: the only man capable of reining in the Chechen rebels...