HOMENATION
INDICATORS
Tax Dollars, Child Heath,
Internet Use and More
CAMPAIGN 2000
Pump Up the Volume
Who Gets the 'A'
in Education?
What They Think of
Each Other
WORKSHEET:
The Big Issues:
A Summary
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Ghosts of Alabama
SOCIETY
Aye, Aye, Ma'am
SCIENCE
The Race Is Over
BUSINESS
Grounds For Appeal
WORLD
GLOBAL ECONOMY
The New Radicals
MIDDLE EAST
Arafat's Long Journey
After the Lion
RUSSIA
The Acid-Bath Solution
WORKSHEET:
The Role of the President:
A Comparison
ASIA
The Remaking of
a Dictator
Taiwan Takes a Stand
AFRICA
When the Peace
Cannot Be Kept
LATIN AMERICA
The Bionic Candidate
Can One Boy
Change Policy?
WORKSHEET:
Deciding Elián's Fate
TECHNOLOGY
Attack of the
Love Bug
Current Events in Review
Answers
RUSSIA
By PAUL QUINN-JUDGE/MOSCOW
Everything about Vladimir Putin—his choreographed public appearances, his rigid media management, his appointment of supergovernors to keep the regions under control—suggests a control freak. Yet his presidency has been marked by a series of gaffes that have undermined his image abroad and caused storms of anger at home. Instead of cleaning up politics, his many critics say, he has created a mess. In some ways, they are right. But there is another side to the story. Putin’s tactics have gone down well in a country where many Russians would happily turn the clock back to the pre-Gorbachev era. His attacks are more consistent than they may appear at first. He targets people who have crossed him or people who in one way or another are perceived as pro-Western. The message too is constant: Challenge me, and your life will be very unpleasant.
The arrest of media millionaire Vladimir Gusinsky was the most high-profile move by Putin. Following an outcry by people who saw the arrest as an affront to Russia’s press freedom, he backed off—slightly. Gusinsky is still under investigation and threatened with slow ruin as creditors call in loans and executives flee his TV network. That battle strategy—a fast poke followed by a slow, acid-burn death—seems to be the Kremlin’s new tactic.
Some say the new President is being ill served by aides, that these lash-outs are products of old-style thinking that Putin is trying to reform. This does not hold water. The excuse was first used in February, when a Russian journalist was arrested and handed over to pro-Russian Chechens. Since then, it has cropped up again and again. Putin paid it lip service when he claimed ignorance of the details of the Gusinsky arrest. But he clearly believes in—or at the very least condones—the politics of intimidation. His choice of victims reflects Russo-centrism and a suspicion of the outside world. It’s a curious strategy since he is at the same time beginning to revitalize Russia’s foreign policy.
Time, July 3, 2000
Questions
1. Why has Putin angered Russians?
2. Explain the conflicting assessments of Putin’s views on foreign policy and corruption.