The stakes are enormous. "Nothing will prevent the forces which are dreaming of the past from introducing their own rules if they gain power," the President said of the Communists recently. That's right, says Valentin Kuptsov, first deputy chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation: "The choice could not be greater. We will determine whether Russia is turned completely into a Western vassal controlled by the U.S. or re-acquires its status as an independent, great power."












ABOVE: Capitalism has brought a flurry of new construction
Christopher Morris Black Star for TIME

Don't Forget
the Benefits 		Whose Hand
On the Button? 		The Baltics Fear
the Hungry Bear