Word: putin
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...Vladimir Putin is a man possessed. He wants to rebuild a strong Russia with a powerful presidency and a flourishing economy. He is determined to crush separatism in Chechnya or anywhere else within Russia's borders. But first and foremost, he wants to end a decade of deep Russian despair. These are dramatic and ambitious goals but they are not new. Since Peter the Great, Russia's leaders have come to power dreaming of sweeping reforms. Most have ended up disappointed, thwarted by the country's unwieldiness and its bureaucrats' subtle sabotage. Despite Putin's refusal to offer explicit policies...
...Putin has already made headway in one area: restoring Russians' faith in themselves. His blunt, occasionally coarse style and energetic demeanor have so galvanized the electorate that he is all but a lock to swing into office as President--barring an unexpectedly low turnout or a last-minute erosion of popularity...
...even before the election, Putin has begun quietly dropping hints about how he views the state of affairs in Russia today. He knows it is a mess. He pledges loyalty to the man who gave him power, Boris Yeltsin. But asked recently by two Russian journalists to name his heroes, Putin singled out men who had pulled their countries out of chaos and catastrophe--neither of them Yeltsin. One was Charles de Gaulle, who created a solid, centralized state in France (and quickly pulled his country out of a colonial war in Algeria, a conflict that is often compared with...
...closer than the oligarchs might have liked, but Vladimir Putin looks ready to take the "acting" part of his title and take over as the next president of Russia. With more than 80 percent of the vote counted, the tally shows Putin with 51.5 percent. A distant number two is the 1996 also-ran, Communist Gennady Zyuganov. The race was surprisingly close, considering polls showed Putin with 50 percent of the vote last week, and considering he was virtually the official candidate of the Russian government. Putin's support was soft in the Russian Far East, where Communists such...
...While the win was expected, the real questions - just who is this guy, anyway, and what are his plans for Russia - remain unanswered. Putin ran the campaign that George W. Bush could only dream about, saying little and revealing even less about how he will govern, which has allowed the West to confidently label him a reformer (and politely ignore that whole Chechnya thing) while at the same time let Russians believe he's there to impose order and restore the Russian state. Both views could be right; now, of course, we get to see if they...