Word: putin
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...some areas, Putin will probably be predictable. Look for him to move early to push through a constitutional amendment extending the presidential term from four years to seven. This would give him 11 years in power, assuming he's re-elected in 2004. And as President, Putin will be discreetly ruthless in his dealings with opposition-minded political heavyweights. Finally, expect him to continue his rock-hard line on Chechnya. The breakaway republic's warlords do not just want independence, he believes. They want to demolish the Russian Federation. Putin speaks of direct rule over the republic and threatens...
Above all, watch for confusion. Putin's reform plans are not yet ready. German Gref, a longtime Putin associate, says the blueprint for the future of Russia will be ready in April. Another ambitious plan, this time to revamp the country's bureaucracy, is months away. But that is only the start. Invaders are not the only ones who get bogged down in Russia's vast expanses. So do reformers. They are defeated by geography and by the millions of apparatchiks who are masters at blocking, diverting, distorting, delaying and eventually destroying policies they do not like. Reforms...
...Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been catapulted from the shadows into the most public of positions: President of all Russia. He is about to inherit constitutional powers akin to a Czar's in what is called an election but amounts to a coronation. But make no mistake: this was not a fair fight. Putin was handpicked for this handover by a tiny cabal in the Kremlin, little different from the ways of the old Soviet Central Committee. Boris Yeltsin and his cronies needed a successor loyal enough to give them the guarantee they craved of immunity from prosecution and strong enough...
...Putin was lucky, but he also made his luck. Look at his eyes. Blue as steel. Cold as the Siberian ice. They bore into you, but you cannot penetrate them. Sometimes they're a mirror, reflecting what you want to see. Sometimes they're a mask disguising real intentions. Those eyes are Putin's strongest feature--not counting his unflinching will. He has proved a consummate opportunist, riding into office on loyalty to his bosses and then war fervor. President Putin will succeed where predecessors failed, says Chief of Staff and confidant Dmitri Kozak, "because the will is there. Discipline...
...pause. He has said other things, about economic reform and democratic liberties, that encourage. He has deliberately left a great deal ambiguous. He has used the brief official campaign not as an occasion for exposure but as a careful exercise in saying the right things to the right people. Putin, say those who have followed his rise, has always been extremely good at that...