Word: putin
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...Putin was sent back to Leningrad, still in the employ of the KGB, to monitor that city's blossoming perestroika movement. Among his contacts was one of the city's most progressive politicians, and a former law professor of his, Anatoly Sobchak. When Sobchak became mayor, Putin joined him and eventually handled foreign investment, among other responsibilities. Though he hunkered out of public sight--he was known as "a gray cardinal"--Putin began to accumulate power and a quiet reputation among reformers. In 1996, Sobchak lost a re-election campaign, and Putin headed to Moscow, where he quickly rose...
Elections at the end of March mean that Putin has hardly enough time to make a serious mistake. A disaster in Chechnya could scar him, but his strategists are calculating that for the time being he has developed a Teflon coating. The biggest threat facing Putin, says Pavlovsky, is dramatically inflated popular expectations. Two and a half months of campaigning, however, allow little chance for Putin's 65% confidence ratings or popular expectations to be significantly deflated. There is also a slight possibility that Putin's views on anything, from economics to defense, will become much clearer in this time...
...absence of policies, a well-honed p.r. campaign by aides, directed at journalists and visiting Western officials, has created the impression of a cool, crisp and ambitious young leader. Skeptical observers saluted his behind-the-throne power with the nickname "Ras-Putin." He has put the word out that he will be an economic reformer, a promise that impresses U.S. officials more than their West European counterparts. Yet a few weeks ago, his economic think tank was still saying that its program would not be ready until the middle of the year 2000. His track record as Prime Minister suggests...
Senior U.S. officials who have met recently with Putin say he is level-headed, intelligent and clearly focused on improving life in Russia. He is, they say, more realist than ideologue. Even after the cold war ended, U.S.-Russia meetings were often tense, usually starting with a long Russian recitation about items on which the two nations would never agree. Putin, by contrast, generally starts his conversation with an old salesman's trick--reviewing things that the U.S. and Russia have in common. There is "none of the Jekyll-and-Hyde ambivalence that characterized former Russian leaders, including Yeltsin," says...
...possible to tease some hopeful signs from the ice-head's resume. Though he has let the military manage the war in Chechnya, for instance, U.S. officials say Putin, unlike Yeltsin, seems to be ultimately in control. Visiting U.S. officials like Attorney General Janet Reno have been impressed that Putin realizes corruption poses a major threat to the creation of a market economy in Russia. If this is so, Putin is in for a struggle. The fight against corruption could turn out to be the defining theme of a Putin presidency. The fact remains that his ascent to power...