Word: russianizing
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...umbrella while waiting for a bus, in a case that has never been solved. Just as in that Markov case, the death of Litvinenko has already given rise to a flurry of conspiracy theories, including speculation among defenders of Putin's government that the poisoning had been arranged by Russian exiles or Western intelligence agencies to discredit Moscow...
Before Litvinenko died, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service stated bluntly that he was "not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations [with Britain]," and a Kremlin spokesman said talk about any possible role it may have had in the affair was "sheer nonsense." Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Putin's chief envoy to the European Union, suggested that the murder might be part of "a well-orchestrated campaign or plan to consistently discredit Russia and its leader." Asked about the matter at a Russia-E.U. meeting in Helsinki on Friday, Putin described...
...years since the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia has been transformed; it's now much richer, more democratic and infinitely more open than it was. But, to the alarm of many Russians and some in the West, the old fear is returning. It is fueled by such things as the lists of targeted Russian activists that circulate on the websites of shadowy ultranationalist groups, and also by recent measures taken by the Putin administration, including a squeeze on the independent press and new laws that could be used to silence opposition voices. "There may no longer be shortages of groceries...
...startling question, but not all that far-fetched. Russian democracy, chaotically vibrant just a decade ago, is looking increasingly fragile as checks and balances to Kremlin power are dismantled. Regional governors and members of the upper house of parliament are no longer elected but appointed; no new political parties can exist or be started, unless endorsed by the Kremlin; it is no longer possible for independent candidates to stand in constituencies for election to the Duma. The continuing conflict in Chechnya has given rise to a slew of allegations about human-rights abuses. And there's a strong impression - real...
Kondaurov and others argue that the Russian authorities are terrified of the sort of "people power" that brought Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili to power in Ukraine and Georgia. He sees a new dissident movement as "the only option," because power in today's Russia is now so concentrated in the hands of the Kremlin that any other opposition is futile. "It's very much the same as the case was in Soviet times," Kondaurov says...