Word: putin
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...deep trouble ever since his opposition released tapes purporting to be recordings of the president ordering his interior minister to "get rid" of a critical journalist whose decapitated body was discovered late last year. As pressure mounts on Kuchma to resign, he met Monday with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Given Kuchma's flirtation with NATO in recent years, Putin's got to be loving this scandal...
...What can Putin actually do for Kuchma...
...much, really. He could use his body language to demonstrate that he's on Kuchma's side, but Putin is not very good at that. The Russians may be poking around for a way to give him support, hoping to collect on the debt later. The Russian media, even those outlets close to the Kremlin, have signaled pretty clearly that Putin is going to try and get all the leverage he can out of Kuchma's troubles. But they haven't laid out what he can do, probably because the Russians themselves don't really know what they...
...Moscow In a move meant more to calm criticism abroad than at home, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial troop withdrawal from the troubled region of Chechnya, where rebel guerrillas continue to take their toll on weary Russian armed forces. While Putin did not specify troop numbers, officials said that as many as 80,000 soldiers could leave Chechnya in the coming months. The pullout, however, remains merely a declared intention. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe welcomed the statement and restored full voting rights to Russia, which were suspended in April last year over Russia...
...Stopping aid to Russia may make good economic sense (where did those zillions go?). But it is not good diplomacy to relinquish a carrot that reinforces the better instincts of Mr. Putin, who is casting about for allies against American "hegemonism." Iraq sanctions? The Europeans are chafing under that burden, but you court futility if you don?t get them aboard for at least those sanctions that constrain Saddam?s military options...