Word: putin
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...criticism of Moscow's tactics in Chechnya may be missing the point: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the undisputed winner of last weekend's Russian parliamentary election precisely because of his get-tough act in Chechnya - and because he stuck his jaw out in the face of Western criticism. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott on Thursday chided Moscow for failing to observe international human rights standards, and there was certainly no lack of evidence to back his claim: Russian forces continued their relentless pounding of Grozny despite the presence of thousands of civilians in the city, and the Russian...
...Domestic political concerns, rather than U.S. criticism, may yet restrain Moscow. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's comments on Thursday that the end of the Chechnya campaign was "close" suggest that the political logic that pushed Moscow into this war may now prompt it to prematurely declare victory. "The primary political objective of this war is to get Putin elected president next year," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "And Putin's handlers recognize that as fast as he's risen on the success of Chechyna thus far, he could fall just as fast if the public begins to perceive that...
...There's a fierce debate raging right now in the Russian leadership over how to proceed in Chechnya," says Meier. "Putin needs to slow things down, drag them out so that the war's still an issue next spring, but the generals have boasted that Grozny will fall within days." And for Putin, planting Russia's flag in Grozny and declaring the operation over may be a way of getting out while the going's good...
Russian voters clearly want a strongman, but the battle to be that strongman may be fought primarily in Chechnya. Sunday's Russian parliamentary election saw an unlikely surge by a party cobbled together only last month with the backing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, signaling that the war in Chechnya has turned the former head of the intelligence service into the man to beat in next summer's presidential election. The Communists held a predictable lead with around 28 percent with most of the vote counted Monday, but the Unity party backed by Putin was running a close second with...
...then, with huge infusions of cash and a stunningly popular patriotic war in Chechnya, build it into a front-runner," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. The result, in which upward of 70 percent of voters appeared to favor parties backing presidential candidates of varying authoritarian stripe (both Putin and Primakov, remember, are products of the KGB), looks set to give President Boris Yeltsin his friendliest legislature since the collapse of communism. But Putin's bid to be the boss Russian voters clearly crave is based almost entirely on the war in Chechnya, where Moscow's troops have taken control...