Word: yeltsin
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...does he like jazz? Western leaders still trying to get a read on Putin were encouraged that the new Russian leader seems to be pragmatic and realistic. While the mercurial Boris Yeltsin "was a great story, he was not a great interlocutor," said one U.S. official. "The other leaders were happy to have a Russian leader they can deal with on a non-emotional basis." Putin also displayed a certain wry sense of irony. He had just come from North Korea, where he was greeted by an outpouring of 1 million citizens - not all there voluntarily, he allowed to Clinton...
...everyone else in the world. Then again, the system's poor performance and the growing clamor of scientific criticism may militate against rushing it into production. Either way, Putin's diplomatic offensive to create a consensus among traditionally divergent states may be a portent of things to come: Boris Yeltsin may have occasionally grumbled, but he mostly allowed the U.S. free rein to unilaterally shape the international agenda. But Putin clearly plans to put up a fight where Russian interests are concerned. And so far, on the missile defense issue, he's comprehensively outmaneuvered Washington on the diplomatic front...
...geopolitical black arts are precisely where Primakov comes in. Although the former foreign minister and prime minister was sidelined by Yeltsin in the runup to Putin's accession and had been the presidential candidate of a rival grouping, Putin evidently bears no grudge. Indeed, they're cut from the same cloth - Primakov is a former KGB chief and Putin headed up its successor organization, the FSB. Putin underlined the significance of that connection soon after taking power, at a highly symbolic gathering at a remote dacha. In the presence of senior intelligence officers, Putin presented Primakov with a hunting rifle...
...other words, unlike Boris Yeltsin, President Putin's going to be no pushover. And that's a lesson both Bill Clinton and his successor may learn the hard way - while, thousands of miles away, an aging former KGB chief smirks cryptically...
...collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it a steady flow of cheap oil, that sent North Korea's economy into precipitous decline during the '90s. But while Moscow left Pyongyang to its own devices - and China's - for most of the Yeltsin years, President Vladimir Putin has signaled renewed interest in the Korean peninsula by planning to become the first major head of state to visit Pyongyang in the South Koreans' wake. Russia, too, stands to gain from South Korean investments, and its own longstanding territorial conflicts with Japan (over the Kuril Islands) increase the importance of strengthening...