Word: thuggishly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...openness of Russian society. It can be glimpsed in the marches against the war in Chechnya by mothers of draft-age men, in the anti-Kremlin diatribes printed by tabloids that leave an unpleasant ink smudge on the fingers. There are less appetizing signs as well in the thuggish youths wearing gym suits who hawk alcohol and cigarettes in sheet-metal kiosks, keeping one step ahead of the law, and in the smug young bankers who make million-dollar deals in currency exchange...
Part of the secret of Zhirinovsky's appeal is his ability to combine populist rhetoric with a crude yearning for ease and glory. Proclaiming slogans like "I'm just the same as you," he careens through Moscow in a motorcade of limousines, accompanied by a cadre of thuggish bodyguards that has included at least one member of the infamous Black Berets, the regiment of ^ Soviet commandos that once terrorized the Baltic states. Even now, notes Oberlin College's Frederick Starr, he adopts "the full trappings of a tin- horn dictator...
Washington -- Although they wonUt say so publicly, some Clinton Administration officials are convinced -- along with Jesse Helms -- that exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide did in fact order the 1991 murder of Roger Lafontant, a thuggish Duvalier militia leader. One senior policymaker says the murder allegation was mentioned in the State Department human-rights report on Haiti "because we believe it to be true." However, even these officials support the reinstatement of Aristide as Haiti's President, believing the continued rule of the Haitian military is a far more terrible prospect...
...many foreign-aid workers and Somalis thought targeting Aidid was dangerously simplistic: other thuggish warlords are waiting to take his place. The U.N. action may have tipped the balance of power toward Aidid's enemies, rather than improved the chances for a political settlement. The peacekeepers inflicted more damage on Aidid than his opponents ever did, and they gleefully cheered the blue helmets on. The ferocity of the intervention may also have cast the U.N. as one more faction in the conflict...
...surrounded himself with a group of thuggish henchmen who specialized in murder and mayhem rather than the silkier arts of persuasion and blackmail once favored by the Mafia. Unlike tradition-bound gangsters who obeyed the vow of silence when arrested, some of these lieutenants cut deals with the law. Over the past year, 270 so-called pentiti provided unprecedented details of the Mob's workings and helped investigators tighten the net around its chief. According to some sources, the tip that led to Riina's arrest came from at least one such stool pigeon who put more faith...