Word: putin
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...landslide Dec. 2 victory posted by President Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party set off a small chorus of Western criticism. Germany's spokesman said the process was "neither free, fair nor democratic." The U.S. called for any irregularities to be investigated. But by waiting until election day to draw attention to scattered reports of ballot-stuffing or voter intimidation, the West came across a bit like Captain Renault in Casablanca: suddenly it was shocked--shocked!--to find electoral shenanigans in Russia...
...speech last night, Gorbachev praised Putin but deflected questions about the United Russia party, insisting that its success or failure could only become clear with time...
...Putin came to [the party’s] help,” Gorbachev said, “but now United Russia must answer all the commitments that they took to the people...
...Putin's success, similarly, is based on reversing the national sense of gloom and doom that accompanied the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. While lionized in the West for his anti-communist stance, Yeltsin is remembered at home for ushering in an era of economic and social catastrophe, rampant kleptocracy and a series of geopolitical humiliations at the hands of the West. Rising oil prices have allowed Putin to oversee a dramatic turnabout in Russia's economic position, fueling an increasingly assertive, and domestically popular, economic and political nationalism. Whether challenging the U.S. and its allies on Kosovo, opting...
...Still, having secured his political blank check, it remains unclear how President Putin will proceed - although he may provide some hint of an answer sooner than next Spring. On December 17, All Russia is due to hold its party congress, where it is expected to name its presidential candidate for the March 2008 election. But whoever the party puts forward in the presidential race, the likelihood remains that his or her election effort will be run, like the party's parliamentary campaign, "For Putin...