Putin

To say the fix was in would be to state the obvious. But there's no other way to characterize the election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's new president, a win as predictable as the victory party that accompanied it. And that includes the must-attend Sunday night concert in Red Square where a chorus of supporters shouted the name of the grand master and architect of Mr. Medvedev's win, Vladimir V. Putin. The current president has made it clear that he intends to remain very active as Mr. Medvedev's prime minister.

It would seem that we're now at the stage of global economic lunacy where the worldwide socialist slide is so far gone that the president of Russia is lecturing the world, and particularly Europe, about the risks of socialism. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vladivostok, Russia, Vladimir Putin promoted the merits of free-market economics. He said that by pulling the former Soviet satellite states into its sphere after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Europe chose to take responsibility for subsidizing their economic well-being.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir V. Putin has seized upon the Beslan school tragedy to chip away even further at Russia's democracy. But instead of strengthening his own power, it's possible that his plan will backfire and lead to the sort of peaceful popular protest that led to the downfall of authoritarian rulers in most of Eastern Europe in 1989, in Serbia in 2000 and in Georgia in 2003. During the era of Mr. Putin's predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, Russians increasingly came to equate democracy with poverty and insecurity.

Now that Vladimir Putin is Russia's president once again, the result of still another fraudulent election, we should expect ever more hostile relations with Moscow. Mr. Putin, a vain and vulgar man, was born and bred to despise the United States. And in recent times, Washington has given him little reason to change his mind. The latest example: President Obama waited several days before calling Mr. Putin to congratulate him on his election victory this month - though Mr. Obama did manage to call Francois Hollande just a few hours after he won the French presidential elections.

FIGHTING TERRORISM is one thing, but protecting Russia's long-term political and economic interests is quite another. That is the unmistakable message from Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who has been improving Russia's relations with Iraq, Iran and North Korea even as he has supported President Bush's declared war against the "axis of evil." Is Mr. Putin, a former KGB cloak-and-dagger careerist, being duplicitous? Not really. He is just behaving the way Russian leaders have done through the ages: moving on several fronts at the same time, pursuing the motherland's glory and self-interest.

WASHINGTON - Recently arrested Russian oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky broke six rules of doing business in Russia that cost him dearly: Do not become the wealthiest person in Russia. Do not run your company in a relatively transparent and Westernized manner. Do not invest money in the civilian sector. Do not support reform-minded political parties. Do not suggest that presidential power be limited and that parliamentary power be increased. Do not solicit support from the United States, especially not if the Russian president is friendly with the American president.

In most countries, the future is impossible to predict, but the past doesn't change. In Russia, it's just the opposite. President Vladimir V. Putin, when he is not busy restoring autocracy to a country that has known little else, has taken on the task of refreshing Russian history with a novel perspective - his own. He is on record lamenting the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." It was worse, apparently, than World War I, worse than World War II - worse, even, than the creation of the Soviet Union.

COMPIEGNE, France --President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia dismissed concerns over his country's growing interest in the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. at a meeting here yesterday with his French and German counterparts. "As far as the acquisition of a 5 percent stake is concerned, it is not at all evidence of aggressive behavior on the part of the Russian side," Putin told reporters. "We will not use this stake to change in any way the institutional situation of EADS." Discussions with President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany at Compiegne, north of Paris, included Russia's handling of its energy resources and such diplomatic issues as Lebanon and Iran.

MOSCOW -- Encountering intense criticism from the United States and Europe about Russia's commitment to civil society, President Vladimir V. Putin signaled a willingness yesterday to temper his country's controversial legislative crackdown on human rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations. But he endorsed the need for a proposed law aimed at reining in NGOs, saying Russia should "exercise control" over the activities of foreign and domestic groups to ensure that their activities adhere to the stated missions of their charters.

MOSCOW -- July was a good month for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. First, the elusive Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the most horrific terrorist acts of the past decade in Russia, was killed. His death July 10 allowed Mr. Putin to claim a victory in the global war on terror just ahead of the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg. The July 15-17 summit was another feather in the cap of Mr. Putin, who faced little of the expected criticism as he played proud host to President Bush and other world leaders in his hometown.

So Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putinhas just been re-presidented for at least another six years, during which we can all watch his newly tucked eyes migrate back to where they used to be. And as surely as a pound dog comes with fleas, this election came with "irregularities" -- cloaked in "democracy," as Russian powers like to do it. For instance, there were 200,000 webcams to monitor the polling stations, but all fed directly into the Kremlin....

WASHINGTON -- On his four previous foreign trips, President Barack Obama has been greeted by cheering crowds and smiling world leaders, a carefully crafted global introduction that emphasized listening, collaboration and cooperation. But expectations are rising for the president and, as he prepared to go abroad again on Sunday, the White House is resetting its goals. Now the idea is to cast Obama not just as a likable, inspirational figure but also as a tough-minded world leader. His first stop Monday will be a sure test.

Power may corrupt, but the powerful often get their way. The latest example is Russia's invasion of Georgia after the former Soviet republic attacked Moscow-supported separatists in a restive province. Last week's conflict was presaged as much by history as by current events: the independence of Kosovo, rising world demand for oil and the Kremlin's unease over growing Western influence in its former vassal states. Last week, the problem was that neither the United States nor its European partners could persuade the Russians to leave immediately.

WASHINGTON - Russia's military offensive into Georgia has jolted the Bush administration's relationship with Moscow, senior officials said yesterday, forcing a wholesale reassessment of American dealings with Russia and jeopardizing talks on issues from halting Iran's nuclear ambitions to reducing strategic arsenals and cooperation on missile defenses. The conflict punctuated a stark turnabout in the administration's view of Vladimir V. Putin, the president-turned-prime minister whom President Bush has repeatedly described as a trustworthy friend.

For the coolest composure while going to war, the gold medal goes to Vladimir V. Putin. The Russian prime minister maintained his characteristic calm during Friday's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing - giving a firm salute to the Russian athletes marching by - while he arranged for another kind of march into the disputed territory of South Ossetia. It's clear that Mr. Putin considers this payback time, not only for Georgia, Russia's meddlesome neighbor to the south, but also for President Bush.

MOSCOW -- Dmitry Medvedev, a corporate lawyer tapped and groomed for the Kremlin by Vladimir V. Putin, was sworn in as president yesterday under the watchful gaze of his mentor and predecessor. As soon as the ceremony was over, just as they had planned for months, Medvedev nominated Putin for prime minister. With the two men apparently poised to rule in tandem, Russians were left waiting with a mix of anxiety and curiosity for hints of who's really in charge: Medvedev, 42, who holds the highest job in the land, or Putin, the former KGB officer and wily politician who seems determined to keep a grip on power.

In the past two months, Russian diplomacy threw a wrench into transatlantic relations, jeopardized U.S. and European energy security plans, put a dent in America's relations with NATO ally Poland, decreased Western influence in the strategic Caucasus region, and significantly increased Moscow's global profile vis-?-vis Brussels and Washington. President Bush's response was to invite Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for talks on July 1, making Mr. Putin the first head of state to ever receive the honor.

WASHINGTON - At one time a Moscow-Washington summit would have been a world-shaking event, a meeting of two hostile global superpowers. But this get-together tomorrow between President Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, will hardly - as it could have little more than a decade ago - move markets or keep other leaders up all night biting their nails. Russia these days is a sad shadow of the former Soviet Union, broken into pieces and struggling with shocking poverty and general dissolution.

SOCHI, Russia -- President Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin failed yesterday to overcome their greatest conflicts on a missile defense system the United States plans to build in Central Europe but narrowed the difference over one key element. The two presidents presented divergent assessments after spending nearly five hours together this weekend, with Bush expressing optimism that Russia was relaxing its opposition to the missile shield and Putin presenting a clear view of his objections and the obstacles in its way. "It is a significant breakthrough," said Bush, focusing on Russia's willingness to work on the missile shield in a partnership with the U.S. and its European allies.

BUCHAREST, Romania -- President Bush declared yesterday that he would not trade away his support for bringing Ukraine and Georgia into NATO in exchange for Russia dropping its opposition to a U.S. missile defense network in Central Europe. "There's no tradeoffs, period," Bush said, stating that it was a "misperception" that he was willing to make such a bargain. The president said after meeting with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko in Kiev that he told Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in a recent telephone call that Moscow had "nothing to fear" if the alliance eventually extends a welcome to the two countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.