From Steve Lendman's Blog:
Currently he's United Russia's Prime Minister, serving with President Dmitry Medvedev.
From May 7, 2000 - May 7, 2008, he was Russia's second President, succeeding Boris Yeltsin, a man known for destructive "shock therapy" that created shocking levels of poverty and social inequality.
After he resigned on the last day of 1999, Putin became acting president, knowing 1990s policies were no longer acceptable. As a candidate, he promised corrective measures, saying:
"I am convinced that the defining feature of the new century will not be a battle of ideologies, but a sharp competition over the quality of life, national wealth and progress."
His agenda included:
rule of law principles under which corporate and private interests no longer would get special privileges the way oligarchs did under Yeltsin. Perhaps not as much, but social inequality is still extreme.
reawakening "national dignity," wanting Russia to be "a self-confident (potentially) great power; and
economic recovery, including elimination extreme poverty and economic crime; calling Russia "a rich country of poor people," he said "there (cannot) be a superpower where weakness and poverty reign."
Russia has a long way to go, but Putin's eight years were noteworthy. Living standards doubled. GDP rose 70%. Nearly all Russia's foreign debt was repaid. About $402 billion in foreign currency reserves were accumulated.
In 2008 dollars, GDP grew from $200 billion in 1999 to $1.26 trillion in 2007. Russia rose from the world's 20th largest economy to seventh ranked. Trade increased from 17% of GDP in 1990 to 48% in 2004.
Being the world's second largest oil producer and largest for natural gas contributed greatly, especially because of skyrocketing energy prices since 2000.
Compared to Yeltsin, his economic record was impressive. Russia was transformed from a basket case to a magnet for foreign investment. Nonetheless, much unfinished business remains, including raising the standard of living for left out millions in society and dealing Russia's deep-seated corruption.
In October 2008, Medvedev said:
"Corruption in our nation has not simply become wide-scale. It has become a common, everyday phenomenon which characterizes the very life of our society. We are not simply talking about commonplace bribery. We are talking about a severe illness which is corroding the economy and corrupting all society.”
It's one of many problems Russia faces, challenging him and Putin to address more aggressively. Prosecutions were pursued earlier. Much more needs to be done to combat a problem estimated by some at around $240 billion annually, involving business and bureaucrats.
He and Medvedev may get six more years to do it.
On September 24, New York Times writer Ellen Barry headlined, "Putin Once More Moves to Assume Top Job in Russia," saying:
His presidential candidacy announcement brought "a wave of applause" from 11,000 party members.
During United Russia's Moscow Congress, Putin officially announced it in elections to be held on March 4, 2011. A September Levada poll showed 41% of Russians prefer him compared to 22% for Medvedev.
On September 24, Medvedev proposed him, saying:
"I think it would be good for Congress to support the candidacy of the party chief, Vladimir Putin, for the post of president of the country." He added that he's "prepared to lead this government (as Prime Minister) and work for the good of the country."
Putin called running again "a great honor for me" adding:
"I want to say directly: An agreement over what to do in the future was reached between us several years ago."
Medvedev added:
"What we are recommending to the convention is a deeply thought-out decision. Moreover, we really discussed this possible turn of events at the time when we formed our comradely union."
Putin served two consecutive four-year terms, but was ineligible for a third consecutive one. If elected in 2012, he'll have six years and may run again in 2018, making him eligible to remain President until 2024.
At age 59 in October, he'll be 72 if elected two more times.
If Putin's popularity stays close to current levels, he, Medvedev and United Russia will govern Russia for another six years with likely Federal Assembly support...
Putin in 2012
Stephen Lendman
Monday, September 26, 2011
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/09/putin-in-2012.html
Showing posts with label Boris Yeltsin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boris Yeltsin. Show all posts
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sunday, October 12, 2008
'Let's learn judo with Vladimir'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1071392/Macho-Putin-releases-Lets-learn-judo-Vladimir-DVD.htmlMacho Putin in yet ANOTHER display of masculinity as he releases 'Let's learn judo with Vladimir' DVD
08th October 2008
First we saw him shirtless while fishing.Then he was pictured at the wheel of a massive racing truck and shooting a tiger in the Siberian forest with a tranquiliser.
He has also appeared operating a train, sailing on a submarine and co-piloting a fighter jet.
Now Vladimir Putin - the world's most manly leader - has released yet another display of his own masculinity: a DVD entitled 'Let's learn judo with Vladimir Putin'.
Today he presented the instructional judo DVD that shows him throwing an opponent to the mat.
'Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin' is the product of collaboration between Putin - a black belt - and former World and Olympic judo champion Yasuhiro Yamashita.
At a nighttime presentation minutes into his 56th birthday, Putin said the title was little more than an 'advertising trick'.
Anyone who watches it 'will be learning not from your humble servant but from real geniuses' of the martial art, he said.
But portions shown on Russian television depicted a black-clad Putin talking about the history and philosophy of judo, as well as a white-robed Putin demonstrating moves against a practice partner.
Putin is a one-time judo champion of his home city St. Petersburg - called Leningrad at the time.
He is also an avid skier, and his apparent fitness and devotion to physical activity helped increase his popularity in eight years as president.
This contrasted sharply with his hard-drinking and chronically ill predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, who died last year.
'The level of developing of sports undoubtedly defines the level of development of the country itself,' Putin said at the presentation.
'Without sports, it's impossible to speak of a healthy way of life, about the health of the nation as such,' he said.
The original publication of the fishing photos made Putin a national sex symbol.
At the time, the Russian mass-market newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge colour photo of the bare-chested president, under the headline "Be Like Putin".
The picture illustrated a guide to the exercises needed to build up a torso like that of the Russian leader.
The paper reported that women who visited its website posted comments on Putin's 'vigorous torso' and said they 'were screaming with delight and showering him with compliments.'
Russian gay chatrooms and blogs were particularly intrigued by the photos.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_us/ye_deaths_1
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 28, 2007
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson outlived her husband, Lyndon, by more than 35 years, expanding on her White House efforts to carve her own legacy as an environmentalist.
When she died July 11 at age 94, she left behind countless miles of scenic highways across the United States, dotted not by billboards and junkyards but by wildflowers.
She is one of the political figures, artists, businessmen and heroes to whom we said goodbye in 2007.
Two charismatic but flawed leaders, Russia's Boris Yeltsin and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, aimed to bring democracy to their homelands. Wally Schirra reached for the stars as one of the original team of Mercury astronauts.
We lost authors Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut and David Halberstam — three men whose writings were shaped by war and found eager audiences in the Vietnam era.
The music world mourned Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti, who appealed to the masses as well as opera buffs; the great classical cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; drummer Max Roach and pianist Oscar Peterson, hailed as geniuses by fellow jazzmen; and rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner.
Directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni — Europeans who championed the art of cinema rather than Hollywood glitter — died on the same day. We also lost the Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane, a film pioneer in Africa.
In terms of cable news interest, the death of model-reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith overshadowed just about anyone else's. Other colorful newsmakers who died included daredevil Evel Knievel and "queen of mean" Leona Helmsley.
Their styles differed, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Messner both brought their religious faith to bear on the wider world.
The sports world said goodbye to longtime Grambling coach Eddie Robinson, Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack and to NFL players Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor, both shot to death before their 25th birthday.
In business, we lost the founders or co-founders of Nasdaq, the Gallo wine-making empire, Bob Evans restaurants, Motel 6 and the Body Shop, the environmental cosmetics chain. The political world lost former Sens. Thomas Eagleton and George Smathers, as well as Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. Columnists Art Buchwald and Molly Ivins brightened their writing with humor but never forgot the serious side of life.
Here, a roll call of some of the notables who died in 2007. (Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)
JANUARY:
Darrent Williams, 24. Denver Broncos cornerback. Jan. 1. Shooting.
Teddy Kollek, 95. Six-term mayor of Jerusalem; tried to balance needs of Jewish and Arab populations. Jan. 2.
C. William Verity Jr., 89. As secretary of commerce, he pushed to recognize quality. Jan. 3.
Vincent Sardi Jr., 91. Consummate host of Sardi's, famed Broadway watering hole. Jan. 4.
Bobby Hamilton, 49. NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500. Jan. 7. Cancer.
Yvonne De Carlo, 84. The vampire mom on "The Munsters." Jan. 8.
Carlo Ponti, 94. Italian producer who discovered — and married — Sophia Loren. Jan. 9.
Robert Anton Wilson, 74. Co-author of science fiction cult classic "The Illuminatus! Trilogy." Jan. 11.
Larry Stewart, 58. Anonymous philanthropist known as Secret Santa. Jan. 12. Cancer.
Michael Brecker, 57. Versatile tenor saxophonist; won 11 Grammys. Jan. 13.
Art Buchwald, 81. Pulitzer-winning humorist who skewered Washington's elite. Jan. 17.
Denny Doherty, 66. Member of 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas ("California Dreamin'.") Jan. 19.
George A. Smathers, 93. Three-term Florida senator, friend to presidents. Jan. 20.
Abbe Pierre, 94. Beloved French priest praised for devotion to the needy. Jan. 22.
E. Howard Hunt, 88. He helped organize the Watergate break-in. Jan. 23.
Charlotte Reid, 93. Four-term Illinois congresswoman, then Federal Communications Commission member. Jan. 24.
Eleanor McGovern, 85. George McGovern's wife; outspoken campaigner in his 1972 presidential run. Jan. 25.
The Rev. Robert Drinan, 86. Priest who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House during the 1970s. Jan. 28.
Gordon S. Macklin, 79. A founder and longtime president of Nasdaq stock market. Jan. 30.
Sidney Sheldon, 89. Stage and screen writer turned best-selling novelist ("The Other Side of Midnight.") Jan. 30.
Molly Ivins, 62. Best-selling author, columnist, a sharp-witted liberal who referred to President Bush as "Shrub." Jan. 31.
FEBRUARY:
Gian Carlo Menotti, 95. Pulitzer-winning Italian composer ("The Consul," "Amahl and the Night Visitors"); founded Spoleto arts festivals. Feb. 1.
Barbara McNair, 72. Pioneering black singer-actress; had her own TV variety show. Feb. 4.
Lew Burdette, 80. MVP of the 1957 World Series when he pitched the Milwaukee Braves. Feb. 6.
Frankie Laine, 93. Big-voiced singer; one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s ("That Lucky Old Sun.") Feb. 6.
Anna Nicole Smith, 39. Model and sometime actress. Feb. 8. Accidental overdose of medication.
Rep. Charles Norwood Jr., 65. Blunt-spoken Georgia Republican congressman. Feb. 13.
Robert Adler, 93. Co-inventor of the TV remote, the 1956 Zenith Space Command. Feb. 15.
Maurice Papon, 96. Former French Cabinet minister convicted of complicity in World War II crimes. Feb. 17.
David Berger, 94. Class-action lawsuit pioneer who won major cases in the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Feb. 22.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89. Pulitzer-winning historian; Kennedy administration "court philosopher." Feb. 28.
MARCH:
Marjabelle Young Stewart, 82. Etiquette authority; co-wrote "White Gloves and Party Manners." March 3.
Thomas Eagleton, 77. Former senator who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression. March 4.
Ernest Gallo, 97. With his brother, he built the world's largest winemaking empire. March 6.
Betty Hutton, 86. Singer-actress who brought brassy vitality to Hollywood musicals ("Annie Get Your Gun.") March 11.
Bowie Kuhn, 80. Baseball commissioner during development of free agency, multimillion-dollar contracts. March 15.
John Backus, 82. Developer of Fortran programming language that changed how people interacted with computers. March 17.
G.E. Patterson, 67. Presiding bishop of 6 million-member Church of God in Christ. March 20.
Walter Turnbull, 62. Founded acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem. March 23.
Robert E. Petersen, 80. Publisher whose Hot Rod, Motor Trend magazines helped shape car culture. March 23.
Tosiwo Nakayama, 75. First president of Federated States of Micronesia as it emerged from U.S. control. March 29.
APRIL:
Herb Carneal, 83. Broadcast Minnesota Twins games for 45 seasons. April 1.
William Becker, 85. Co-founded the Motel 6 chain. April 2.
Eddie Robinson, 88. Longtime Grambling coach; transformed small college into a football power. April 3.
Nina Wang, 69. Hong Kong businesswoman; one of world's richest women. April 3.
Darryl Stingley, 55. New England Patriots player paralyzed during on-field collision in 1978. April 5. Complications of paralysis.
Johnny Hart, 76. Cartoonist whose "B.C." showed the Stone Age's humorous side. April 7.
Sol LeWitt, 78. Influential abstract painter, sculptor. April 8.
Kurt Vonnegut, 84. Novelist who captured the absurdity of the world in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five." April 11.
Don Ho, 76. Hawaiian crooner ("Tiny Bubbles"); entertained tourists. April 14.
Frank Westheimer, 95. Eminent chemist; former science adviser to President Johnson. April 14.
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96. Singer-actress; career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film ("A Night at the Opera.") April 17.
Helen Robson Walton, 87. Widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton; philanthropist. April 19.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68. Seven-term California congresswoman; advocated electoral reform. April 21.
David Halberstam, 73. Journalist whose books included towering study of Vietnam War, poignant portrait of aging baseball stars. April 23.
Boris Yeltsin, 76. Former Russian president who helped bring demise of Soviet Union. April 23.
Warren Avis, 92. Founded Avis Rent A Car. April 24.
Jack Valenti, 85. Film industry lobbyist; instituted modern movie ratings system. April 26.
Mstislav Rostropovich, 80. Ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents. April 27.
Tom Poston, 85. The tall, pasty-faced TV comic whose characters were clueless. ("Newhart.") April 30.
MAY:
Walter M. Schirra Jr., 84. An original Mercury Seven astronaut, who combined the Right Stuff with a pronounced rebellious streak. May 3.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, 71. Former cult leader in Miami linked to nearly two dozen gruesome killings in the 1980s. May 7.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, 73. Evangelist who used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty political force. May 15.
Yolanda King, 51. Actress and activist; daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King. May 15.
Fannie Lee Chaney, 84. Mother of one of three civil-rights workers killed in 1964 "Mississippi Burning" case. May 22. (Carolyn Goodman, one of the other two mothers, died Aug. 17 at 91.)
Charles Nelson Reilly, 76. Tony Award winner; known for ribald TV game show appearances. May 25.
Homer J. Stewart, 91. Rocket pioneer; helped develop first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I. May 26.
Paul Yost, 87. Pioneer of hot-air ballooning. May 27.
Barbara Cox Anthony, 84. Heiress to Cox media fortune; one of world's richest women. May 28.
Preston Martin, 83. Top Federal Reserve official; helped create Freddie Mac. May 30.
JUNE
Charles William Maynes, 68. Longtime editor of Foreign Policy magazine. June 2.
Wiley Mayne, 90. Four-term Iowa congressman; one of 10 Republicans who voted not to impeach President Nixon. June 3.
Bill France Jr., 74. Transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate. June 4.
Sen. Craig Thomas, 74. Three-term Senate Republican; reliably represented conservative Wyoming. June 4.
Edwin Traisman, 91. Food scientist; helped develop Cheez Whiz. June 5.
Sembene Ousmane, 84. Father of Senegalese cinema; one of the pioneers of the art in Africa. June 9.
Ray Mears, 80. Winningest men's coach in Tennessee basketball history. June 11.
Don Herbert, 89. Television's "Mr. Wizard." June 12.
Donald Clancy, 85. Eight-term Ohio congressman; Cincinnati mayor. June 12.
Baron Guy de Rothschild, 98. Managed his family's French banking empire. June 12.
Ruth Graham, 87. Rev. Billy Graham's closest confidante, providing a solid foundation for her husband's evangelism career. June 14.
Kurt Waldheim, 88. U.N. secretary-general; Austrian president; was revealed to have been in German army unit that committed atrocities in World War II. June 14.
Gianfranco Ferre, 62. Italian designer known as "architect of fashion." June 17.
Bob Evans, 89. Created namesake restaurant chain. June 21.
Guy Vander Jagt, 75. 13-term Michigan congressman; led House GOP election strategy. June 22.
Charles W. Lindberg, 86. Helped raise first American flag over Iwo Jima. June 24.
Chris Benoit, 40. World Wrestling Entertainment star. Found June 25; apparent suicide after killing wife, 7-year-old son.
Liz Claiborne, 78. Her fashion designs became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes. June 26.
Joel Siegel, 63. "Good Morning America" movie critic. June 29.
JULY
Beverly Sills, 78. Opera diva with a dazzling voice, bubbly personality. July 2.
Boots Randolph, 80. His spirited saxophone made "Yakety Sax" a hit. July 3.
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68. Pioneer of the modern historical romance novel ("The Flame and the Flower.") July 6.
Doug Marlette, 57. Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of comic strip "Kudzu." July 10. Car accident.
Lady Bird Johnson, 94. Former first lady who championed conservation, worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. July 11.
Kai Siegbahn, 89. Shared 1981 Nobel Prize in physics. July 20.
Tammy Faye Messner, 65. Helped then-husband Jim Bakker build a TV evangelism empire that later collapsed in disgrace. July 20.
Laszlo Kovacs, 74. Influential cinematographer ("Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces.") July 22.
Norma Gabler, 84. Influential Texas crusader against what she saw as anti-American errors in textbooks. July 22.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92. Afghanistan's last king, who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 coup. July 23.
Albert Ellis, 93. Influential psychologist, founded a renowned therapy institute. July 24.
Alan Pottasch, 79. PepsiCo. exec whose '60s ads dubbed baby boomers "the Pepsi Generation." July 27.
Tom Snyder, 71. Late-late night TV talk show host with a robust laugh, trademark cloud of cigarette smoke. July 29.
Bill Walsh, 75. San Francisco 49ers coach; won three Super Bowls. July 30.
Ingmar Bergman, 87. Swedish filmmaker; one of the greatest in cinema history ("The Seventh Seal," "Cries and Whispers.") July 30.
Michelangelo Antonioni, 94. Italian filmmaker whose depiction of modern-day malaise made him a symbol of art-house cinema ("Blow-Up," "L'Avventura.") July 30.
AUGUST:
Atle Selberg, 90. Renowned mathematician; worked on the properties of prime numbers. Aug. 6.
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90. A black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1940s. Aug. 10.
Merv Griffin, 82. Singer turned TV host turned impresario who parlayed game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. Aug. 12.
Ralph Alpher, 86. Physicist; did key work on underpinnings of the "Big Bang" theory. Aug. 12.
Brooke Astor, 105. Philanthropist who gave millions to New York City institutions, large and small. Aug. 13.
Phil Rizzuto, 89. Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop; sportscaster much loved for exclaiming "Holy cow!" Aug. 13.
Max Roach, 83. Jazz drummer whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop. Aug. 16.
Dr. Leslie Lukash, 86. Medical examiner who helped identify the remains of Nazi Josef Mengele. Aug. 16.
Michael K. Deaver, 69. Adviser to Ronald Reagan who directed the president's picturesque public appearances. Aug. 18.
Leona Helmsley, 87. Ran a $5 billion real estate empire with her husband but became known as the "queen of mean" during her 1989 tax evasion trial. Aug. 20.
Grace Paley, 84. Acclaimed poet and short story writer. Aug. 22.
Butch van Breda Kolff, 84. Led the Los Angeles Lakers to two NBA finals appearances, won 482 games as a college coach. Aug. 22.
Rabbi Judah Nadich, 95. Military chaplain who advised Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the discovery of Nazi concentration camps. Aug. 26.
Hilly Kristal, 75. His Manhattan club CBGB served as birthplace of punk rock. Aug. 28.
Paul MacCready, 81. Designed the Gossamer Condor flying machine, which in 1977 made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by human muscle. Aug. 28.
Miyoshi Umeki, 78. Oscar-winning actress ("Sayonara.") Aug. 28.
Richard Jewell, 44. Former security guard wrongly linked to 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta. Aug. 29. Heart disease.
Charles Vanik, 94. Ohio congressman who co-sponsored law to get Soviet Union to allow more Jews to emigrate. Aug. 29.
SEPTEMBER:
Rep. Paul Gillmor, 68. 10-term Ohio congressman; strong proponent of the military. Sept. 5.
Jennifer Dunn, 66. six-term Washington state congresswoman. Sept. 5.
The Rev. D. James Kennedy, 76. Megachurch pastor; prominent Christian broadcaster. Sept. 5.
Luciano Pavarotti, 71. Opera superstar hailed as "king of the high C's." Sept. 6.
Madeleine L'Engle, 88. Author who captivated children with "A Wrinkle in Time." Sept. 6.
Jane Wyman, 90. Won Oscar as deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda"; later in TV's "Falcon Crest." Ronald Reagan's ex-wife. Sept. 10.
Anita Roddick, 64. Founded eco-friendly beauty retailer The Body Shop. Sept. 10.
Joe Zawinul, 75. Jazz keyboardist; one of the creators of jazz-rock fusion with Weather Report ("Birdland.") Sept. 11.
Gene Savoy, 80. Explorer who discovered lost Inca and pre-Inca cities in Peru. Sept. 11.
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, late 30s. Iraq sheik who helped American strategy of enlisting aid of Sunni tribes. Sept. 13. Bomb.
John E. Swearingen, 89. Executive who led Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. Sept. 14.
Colin McRae, 39. Britain's best-known rally driver, former World Rally champion. Sept. 15. Helicopter crash.
Robert Jordan, 58. Author of "Wheel of Time" fantasy novels. Sept. 16. Blood disease.
The Rev. Rex Humbard, 88. His televangelism ministry once spanned the globe. Sept. 21.
Marcel Marceau, 84. French master of pantomime who transformed silence into poetry. Sept. 22.
William Wirtz, 77. Longtime Chicago Blackhawks owner. Sept. 26.
Harry Dent, 77. Former top adviser to President Nixon; helped him win the South. Sept. 28.
Wally Parks, 94. Founded National Hot Rod Association, helping turn drag racing into legitimate sport. Sept. 28.
Ralph Sturges, 88. As Mohegan chief, helped develop tribe's hugely successful Mohegan Sun casino. Sept. 30.
OCTOBER:
Al Oerter, 71. Discus great who won gold medals in four Olympics. Oct. 1.
James W. Michaels, 86. Transformed business journalism as Forbes magazine editor. Oct. 2.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, 57. Virginia congresswoman; made servicemen's needs a key issue. Oct. 6. Breast cancer.
Sri Chinmoy, 76. Indian-born spiritual leader; inspired followers to perform athletic feats. Oct. 11.
Vernon Bellecourt, 75. Fought use of Indian nicknames for teams as a leader of the American Indian Movement. Oct. 13.
Deborah Kerr, 86. Actress who kissed Burt Lancaster on a beach in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with Yul Brynner in "The King and I." Oct. 16.
Barbara West Dainton, 96. Englishwoman believed to be one of the last two survivors from the Titanic. Oct. 16.
Joey Bishop, 89. Stone-faced TV and nightclub comedian; last of the Rat Pack. Oct. 17.
Catherine Roraback, 87. Attorney who won 1965 Supreme Court that established the right to contraceptives and privacy. Oct. 17.
Teresa Brewer, 76. She topped the charts in the 1950s ("Till I Waltz Again With You.") Oct. 17.
William Crowe, 82. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ambassador to Britain. Oct. 18.
Max McGee, 75. Hero of first Super Bowl in 1967, helping Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10. Oct. 20.
R.B. Kitaj, 74. A key figure in the British Pop Art movement. Oct. 21.
Hans Stern, 85. Founded H. Stern jewelry empire. Oct. 26.
Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 89. His test-tube synthesis of DNA earned a 1959 Nobel Prize. Oct. 26.
Porter Wagoner, 80. Grand Ole Opry star; helped launch the career of Dolly Parton. Oct. 28.
Thomas J. Meskill, 79. Connecticut congressman and governor; later a federal judge. Oct. 29.
Robert Goulet, 73. Baritone made Broadway debut in "Camelot;" won Tony in 1968 for "The Happy Time." Oct. 30.
NOVEMBER:
Paul Tibbets, 92. Piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Nov. 1.
Igor Moiseyev, 101. Choreographer who transformed folk dance into a legitimate art, showcasing Russian culture. Nov. 2.
Luis Herrera Campins, 82. Former Venezuelan president; part of a generation of leaders who helped usher in democracy in the 1950s. Nov. 9.
Norman Mailer, 84. The pugnacious prince of American letters. Nov. 10.
Augustus Hawkins, 100. California's first black congressman, elected in 1962. Nov. 10.
Delbert Mann, 87. Directed "Marty," classic lonely-guy teleplay that became Oscar-winning film. Nov. 11.
Charlie Brady "C.B." Hauser, 90. College professor who took a stand against segregation in 1947 by refusing to give up a bus seat to a white. Nov. 11.
Ira Levin, 78. Best-selling novelist ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Boys From Brazil.") Nov. 12.
The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., 82. Pastor of church in Birmingham, Ala., where four girls died in a 1963 racist bombing. Nov. 15.
Joe Nuxhall, 79. Youngest major leaguer ever at age 15; later a Cincinnati sportscaster. Nov. 15.
Dick Wilson, 91. Played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who begged customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin." Nov. 19.
Milo Radulovich, 81. Serviceman championed by Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s. Nov. 19.
Ian Smith, 88. Rhodesia's last white prime minister; his attempts to resist black rule brought isolation and civil war. Nov. 20.
Herbert Saffir, 90. Engineer; created the five-category system to describe hurricane strength. Nov. 21.
Maurice Bejart, 80. Avant-garde French choreographer. Nov. 22.
Silvestre Herrera, 90. Awarded Medal of Honor for a one-man assault on an enemy position during World War II. Nov. 26.
Dr. J. Robert Cade, 80. Inventor of Gatorade. Nov. 27.
Bill Hartack, 74. Hall of Fame jockey; one of only two to win five Kentucky Derbys. Nov. 26.
Bill Willis, 86. Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns; Ohio State's first black football All-American. Nov. 27.
Sean Taylor, 24. Washington Redskins' star safety; known as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Nov. 27. Shot in his home.
Henry Hyde, 83. Illinois congressman steered impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Nov. 29.
Roger B. Smith, 82. Led General Motors Corp.; was subject of Michael Moore's documentary "Roger & Me." Nov. 29.
Evel Knievel, 69. Motorcycle daredevil known for spectacular jumps and bone-crushing crashes. Nov. 30.
DECEMBER:
Robert O. Anderson, 90. CEO of Atlantic Richfield Co. when it announced the discovery of North America's largest oil field. Dec. 1.
Elizabeth Hardwick, 91. Leading intellectual author ("Sleepless Nights") and critic. Dec. 2.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79. Avant-garde German composer; pioneer of electronic music. Dec. 5.
Roger M. King, 63. CBS and King World Productions executive; helped bring such stars as Oprah Winfrey to television. Dec. 8.
Rene J. Cappon, 83. Longtime Associated Press editor; the word master behind some of its best writers. Dec. 9.
Freddie Fields, 84. Colorful Hollywood agent, producer ("Glory"), studio executive. Dec. 11.
Ike Turner, 76. Rock innovator who teamed with wife Tina Turner (and denied abusing her). Dec. 12.
Rep. Julia Carson, 69. First black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress. Dec. 15.
Dan Fogelberg, 56. His gentle, poignant hits ("Longer," "Leader of the Band") helped define soft-rock. Dec. 16. Cancer.
J. Russell Coffey, 109. Oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I. Dec. 20.
Ken Hendricks, 66. His ABC Supply Co., a roofing and siding supply company, made him a billionaire. Dec. 21.
Michael Kidd, 92. Choreographer whose athletic dances ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") won him five Tonys and a special Oscar. Dec. 23.
Oscar Peterson, 82. Jazz pianist whose hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations were hugely influential. Dec. 23.
Benazir Bhutto, 54. Former Pakistan prime minister who returned from exile to challenge the current leader, Pervez Musharraf. Dec. 27. Assassinated.
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 28, 2007
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson outlived her husband, Lyndon, by more than 35 years, expanding on her White House efforts to carve her own legacy as an environmentalist.
When she died July 11 at age 94, she left behind countless miles of scenic highways across the United States, dotted not by billboards and junkyards but by wildflowers.
She is one of the political figures, artists, businessmen and heroes to whom we said goodbye in 2007.
Two charismatic but flawed leaders, Russia's Boris Yeltsin and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, aimed to bring democracy to their homelands. Wally Schirra reached for the stars as one of the original team of Mercury astronauts.
We lost authors Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut and David Halberstam — three men whose writings were shaped by war and found eager audiences in the Vietnam era.
The music world mourned Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti, who appealed to the masses as well as opera buffs; the great classical cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; drummer Max Roach and pianist Oscar Peterson, hailed as geniuses by fellow jazzmen; and rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner.
Directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni — Europeans who championed the art of cinema rather than Hollywood glitter — died on the same day. We also lost the Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane, a film pioneer in Africa.
In terms of cable news interest, the death of model-reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith overshadowed just about anyone else's. Other colorful newsmakers who died included daredevil Evel Knievel and "queen of mean" Leona Helmsley.
Their styles differed, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Messner both brought their religious faith to bear on the wider world.
The sports world said goodbye to longtime Grambling coach Eddie Robinson, Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack and to NFL players Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor, both shot to death before their 25th birthday.
In business, we lost the founders or co-founders of Nasdaq, the Gallo wine-making empire, Bob Evans restaurants, Motel 6 and the Body Shop, the environmental cosmetics chain. The political world lost former Sens. Thomas Eagleton and George Smathers, as well as Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. Columnists Art Buchwald and Molly Ivins brightened their writing with humor but never forgot the serious side of life.
Here, a roll call of some of the notables who died in 2007. (Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)
JANUARY:
Darrent Williams, 24. Denver Broncos cornerback. Jan. 1. Shooting.
Teddy Kollek, 95. Six-term mayor of Jerusalem; tried to balance needs of Jewish and Arab populations. Jan. 2.
C. William Verity Jr., 89. As secretary of commerce, he pushed to recognize quality. Jan. 3.
Vincent Sardi Jr., 91. Consummate host of Sardi's, famed Broadway watering hole. Jan. 4.
Bobby Hamilton, 49. NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500. Jan. 7. Cancer.
Yvonne De Carlo, 84. The vampire mom on "The Munsters." Jan. 8.
Carlo Ponti, 94. Italian producer who discovered — and married — Sophia Loren. Jan. 9.
Robert Anton Wilson, 74. Co-author of science fiction cult classic "The Illuminatus! Trilogy." Jan. 11.
Larry Stewart, 58. Anonymous philanthropist known as Secret Santa. Jan. 12. Cancer.
Michael Brecker, 57. Versatile tenor saxophonist; won 11 Grammys. Jan. 13.
Art Buchwald, 81. Pulitzer-winning humorist who skewered Washington's elite. Jan. 17.
Denny Doherty, 66. Member of 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas ("California Dreamin'.") Jan. 19.
George A. Smathers, 93. Three-term Florida senator, friend to presidents. Jan. 20.
Abbe Pierre, 94. Beloved French priest praised for devotion to the needy. Jan. 22.
E. Howard Hunt, 88. He helped organize the Watergate break-in. Jan. 23.
Charlotte Reid, 93. Four-term Illinois congresswoman, then Federal Communications Commission member. Jan. 24.
Eleanor McGovern, 85. George McGovern's wife; outspoken campaigner in his 1972 presidential run. Jan. 25.
The Rev. Robert Drinan, 86. Priest who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House during the 1970s. Jan. 28.
Gordon S. Macklin, 79. A founder and longtime president of Nasdaq stock market. Jan. 30.
Sidney Sheldon, 89. Stage and screen writer turned best-selling novelist ("The Other Side of Midnight.") Jan. 30.
Molly Ivins, 62. Best-selling author, columnist, a sharp-witted liberal who referred to President Bush as "Shrub." Jan. 31.
FEBRUARY:
Gian Carlo Menotti, 95. Pulitzer-winning Italian composer ("The Consul," "Amahl and the Night Visitors"); founded Spoleto arts festivals. Feb. 1.
Barbara McNair, 72. Pioneering black singer-actress; had her own TV variety show. Feb. 4.
Lew Burdette, 80. MVP of the 1957 World Series when he pitched the Milwaukee Braves. Feb. 6.
Frankie Laine, 93. Big-voiced singer; one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s ("That Lucky Old Sun.") Feb. 6.
Anna Nicole Smith, 39. Model and sometime actress. Feb. 8. Accidental overdose of medication.
Rep. Charles Norwood Jr., 65. Blunt-spoken Georgia Republican congressman. Feb. 13.
Robert Adler, 93. Co-inventor of the TV remote, the 1956 Zenith Space Command. Feb. 15.
Maurice Papon, 96. Former French Cabinet minister convicted of complicity in World War II crimes. Feb. 17.
David Berger, 94. Class-action lawsuit pioneer who won major cases in the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Feb. 22.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89. Pulitzer-winning historian; Kennedy administration "court philosopher." Feb. 28.
MARCH:
Marjabelle Young Stewart, 82. Etiquette authority; co-wrote "White Gloves and Party Manners." March 3.
Thomas Eagleton, 77. Former senator who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression. March 4.
Ernest Gallo, 97. With his brother, he built the world's largest winemaking empire. March 6.
Betty Hutton, 86. Singer-actress who brought brassy vitality to Hollywood musicals ("Annie Get Your Gun.") March 11.
Bowie Kuhn, 80. Baseball commissioner during development of free agency, multimillion-dollar contracts. March 15.
John Backus, 82. Developer of Fortran programming language that changed how people interacted with computers. March 17.
G.E. Patterson, 67. Presiding bishop of 6 million-member Church of God in Christ. March 20.
Walter Turnbull, 62. Founded acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem. March 23.
Robert E. Petersen, 80. Publisher whose Hot Rod, Motor Trend magazines helped shape car culture. March 23.
Tosiwo Nakayama, 75. First president of Federated States of Micronesia as it emerged from U.S. control. March 29.
APRIL:
Herb Carneal, 83. Broadcast Minnesota Twins games for 45 seasons. April 1.
William Becker, 85. Co-founded the Motel 6 chain. April 2.
Eddie Robinson, 88. Longtime Grambling coach; transformed small college into a football power. April 3.
Nina Wang, 69. Hong Kong businesswoman; one of world's richest women. April 3.
Darryl Stingley, 55. New England Patriots player paralyzed during on-field collision in 1978. April 5. Complications of paralysis.
Johnny Hart, 76. Cartoonist whose "B.C." showed the Stone Age's humorous side. April 7.
Sol LeWitt, 78. Influential abstract painter, sculptor. April 8.
Kurt Vonnegut, 84. Novelist who captured the absurdity of the world in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five." April 11.
Don Ho, 76. Hawaiian crooner ("Tiny Bubbles"); entertained tourists. April 14.
Frank Westheimer, 95. Eminent chemist; former science adviser to President Johnson. April 14.
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96. Singer-actress; career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film ("A Night at the Opera.") April 17.
Helen Robson Walton, 87. Widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton; philanthropist. April 19.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68. Seven-term California congresswoman; advocated electoral reform. April 21.
David Halberstam, 73. Journalist whose books included towering study of Vietnam War, poignant portrait of aging baseball stars. April 23.
Boris Yeltsin, 76. Former Russian president who helped bring demise of Soviet Union. April 23.
Warren Avis, 92. Founded Avis Rent A Car. April 24.
Jack Valenti, 85. Film industry lobbyist; instituted modern movie ratings system. April 26.
Mstislav Rostropovich, 80. Ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents. April 27.
Tom Poston, 85. The tall, pasty-faced TV comic whose characters were clueless. ("Newhart.") April 30.
MAY:
Walter M. Schirra Jr., 84. An original Mercury Seven astronaut, who combined the Right Stuff with a pronounced rebellious streak. May 3.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, 71. Former cult leader in Miami linked to nearly two dozen gruesome killings in the 1980s. May 7.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, 73. Evangelist who used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty political force. May 15.
Yolanda King, 51. Actress and activist; daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King. May 15.
Fannie Lee Chaney, 84. Mother of one of three civil-rights workers killed in 1964 "Mississippi Burning" case. May 22. (Carolyn Goodman, one of the other two mothers, died Aug. 17 at 91.)
Charles Nelson Reilly, 76. Tony Award winner; known for ribald TV game show appearances. May 25.
Homer J. Stewart, 91. Rocket pioneer; helped develop first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I. May 26.
Paul Yost, 87. Pioneer of hot-air ballooning. May 27.
Barbara Cox Anthony, 84. Heiress to Cox media fortune; one of world's richest women. May 28.
Preston Martin, 83. Top Federal Reserve official; helped create Freddie Mac. May 30.
JUNE
Charles William Maynes, 68. Longtime editor of Foreign Policy magazine. June 2.
Wiley Mayne, 90. Four-term Iowa congressman; one of 10 Republicans who voted not to impeach President Nixon. June 3.
Bill France Jr., 74. Transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate. June 4.
Sen. Craig Thomas, 74. Three-term Senate Republican; reliably represented conservative Wyoming. June 4.
Edwin Traisman, 91. Food scientist; helped develop Cheez Whiz. June 5.
Sembene Ousmane, 84. Father of Senegalese cinema; one of the pioneers of the art in Africa. June 9.
Ray Mears, 80. Winningest men's coach in Tennessee basketball history. June 11.
Don Herbert, 89. Television's "Mr. Wizard." June 12.
Donald Clancy, 85. Eight-term Ohio congressman; Cincinnati mayor. June 12.
Baron Guy de Rothschild, 98. Managed his family's French banking empire. June 12.
Ruth Graham, 87. Rev. Billy Graham's closest confidante, providing a solid foundation for her husband's evangelism career. June 14.
Kurt Waldheim, 88. U.N. secretary-general; Austrian president; was revealed to have been in German army unit that committed atrocities in World War II. June 14.
Gianfranco Ferre, 62. Italian designer known as "architect of fashion." June 17.
Bob Evans, 89. Created namesake restaurant chain. June 21.
Guy Vander Jagt, 75. 13-term Michigan congressman; led House GOP election strategy. June 22.
Charles W. Lindberg, 86. Helped raise first American flag over Iwo Jima. June 24.
Chris Benoit, 40. World Wrestling Entertainment star. Found June 25; apparent suicide after killing wife, 7-year-old son.
Liz Claiborne, 78. Her fashion designs became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes. June 26.
Joel Siegel, 63. "Good Morning America" movie critic. June 29.
JULY
Beverly Sills, 78. Opera diva with a dazzling voice, bubbly personality. July 2.
Boots Randolph, 80. His spirited saxophone made "Yakety Sax" a hit. July 3.
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68. Pioneer of the modern historical romance novel ("The Flame and the Flower.") July 6.
Doug Marlette, 57. Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of comic strip "Kudzu." July 10. Car accident.
Lady Bird Johnson, 94. Former first lady who championed conservation, worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. July 11.
Kai Siegbahn, 89. Shared 1981 Nobel Prize in physics. July 20.
Tammy Faye Messner, 65. Helped then-husband Jim Bakker build a TV evangelism empire that later collapsed in disgrace. July 20.
Laszlo Kovacs, 74. Influential cinematographer ("Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces.") July 22.
Norma Gabler, 84. Influential Texas crusader against what she saw as anti-American errors in textbooks. July 22.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92. Afghanistan's last king, who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 coup. July 23.
Albert Ellis, 93. Influential psychologist, founded a renowned therapy institute. July 24.
Alan Pottasch, 79. PepsiCo. exec whose '60s ads dubbed baby boomers "the Pepsi Generation." July 27.
Tom Snyder, 71. Late-late night TV talk show host with a robust laugh, trademark cloud of cigarette smoke. July 29.
Bill Walsh, 75. San Francisco 49ers coach; won three Super Bowls. July 30.
Ingmar Bergman, 87. Swedish filmmaker; one of the greatest in cinema history ("The Seventh Seal," "Cries and Whispers.") July 30.
Michelangelo Antonioni, 94. Italian filmmaker whose depiction of modern-day malaise made him a symbol of art-house cinema ("Blow-Up," "L'Avventura.") July 30.
AUGUST:
Atle Selberg, 90. Renowned mathematician; worked on the properties of prime numbers. Aug. 6.
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90. A black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1940s. Aug. 10.
Merv Griffin, 82. Singer turned TV host turned impresario who parlayed game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. Aug. 12.
Ralph Alpher, 86. Physicist; did key work on underpinnings of the "Big Bang" theory. Aug. 12.
Brooke Astor, 105. Philanthropist who gave millions to New York City institutions, large and small. Aug. 13.
Phil Rizzuto, 89. Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop; sportscaster much loved for exclaiming "Holy cow!" Aug. 13.
Max Roach, 83. Jazz drummer whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop. Aug. 16.
Dr. Leslie Lukash, 86. Medical examiner who helped identify the remains of Nazi Josef Mengele. Aug. 16.
Michael K. Deaver, 69. Adviser to Ronald Reagan who directed the president's picturesque public appearances. Aug. 18.
Leona Helmsley, 87. Ran a $5 billion real estate empire with her husband but became known as the "queen of mean" during her 1989 tax evasion trial. Aug. 20.
Grace Paley, 84. Acclaimed poet and short story writer. Aug. 22.
Butch van Breda Kolff, 84. Led the Los Angeles Lakers to two NBA finals appearances, won 482 games as a college coach. Aug. 22.
Rabbi Judah Nadich, 95. Military chaplain who advised Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the discovery of Nazi concentration camps. Aug. 26.
Hilly Kristal, 75. His Manhattan club CBGB served as birthplace of punk rock. Aug. 28.
Paul MacCready, 81. Designed the Gossamer Condor flying machine, which in 1977 made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by human muscle. Aug. 28.
Miyoshi Umeki, 78. Oscar-winning actress ("Sayonara.") Aug. 28.
Richard Jewell, 44. Former security guard wrongly linked to 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta. Aug. 29. Heart disease.
Charles Vanik, 94. Ohio congressman who co-sponsored law to get Soviet Union to allow more Jews to emigrate. Aug. 29.
SEPTEMBER:
Rep. Paul Gillmor, 68. 10-term Ohio congressman; strong proponent of the military. Sept. 5.
Jennifer Dunn, 66. six-term Washington state congresswoman. Sept. 5.
The Rev. D. James Kennedy, 76. Megachurch pastor; prominent Christian broadcaster. Sept. 5.
Luciano Pavarotti, 71. Opera superstar hailed as "king of the high C's." Sept. 6.
Madeleine L'Engle, 88. Author who captivated children with "A Wrinkle in Time." Sept. 6.
Jane Wyman, 90. Won Oscar as deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda"; later in TV's "Falcon Crest." Ronald Reagan's ex-wife. Sept. 10.
Anita Roddick, 64. Founded eco-friendly beauty retailer The Body Shop. Sept. 10.
Joe Zawinul, 75. Jazz keyboardist; one of the creators of jazz-rock fusion with Weather Report ("Birdland.") Sept. 11.
Gene Savoy, 80. Explorer who discovered lost Inca and pre-Inca cities in Peru. Sept. 11.
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, late 30s. Iraq sheik who helped American strategy of enlisting aid of Sunni tribes. Sept. 13. Bomb.
John E. Swearingen, 89. Executive who led Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. Sept. 14.
Colin McRae, 39. Britain's best-known rally driver, former World Rally champion. Sept. 15. Helicopter crash.
Robert Jordan, 58. Author of "Wheel of Time" fantasy novels. Sept. 16. Blood disease.
The Rev. Rex Humbard, 88. His televangelism ministry once spanned the globe. Sept. 21.
Marcel Marceau, 84. French master of pantomime who transformed silence into poetry. Sept. 22.
William Wirtz, 77. Longtime Chicago Blackhawks owner. Sept. 26.
Harry Dent, 77. Former top adviser to President Nixon; helped him win the South. Sept. 28.
Wally Parks, 94. Founded National Hot Rod Association, helping turn drag racing into legitimate sport. Sept. 28.
Ralph Sturges, 88. As Mohegan chief, helped develop tribe's hugely successful Mohegan Sun casino. Sept. 30.
OCTOBER:
Al Oerter, 71. Discus great who won gold medals in four Olympics. Oct. 1.
James W. Michaels, 86. Transformed business journalism as Forbes magazine editor. Oct. 2.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, 57. Virginia congresswoman; made servicemen's needs a key issue. Oct. 6. Breast cancer.
Sri Chinmoy, 76. Indian-born spiritual leader; inspired followers to perform athletic feats. Oct. 11.
Vernon Bellecourt, 75. Fought use of Indian nicknames for teams as a leader of the American Indian Movement. Oct. 13.
Deborah Kerr, 86. Actress who kissed Burt Lancaster on a beach in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with Yul Brynner in "The King and I." Oct. 16.
Barbara West Dainton, 96. Englishwoman believed to be one of the last two survivors from the Titanic. Oct. 16.
Joey Bishop, 89. Stone-faced TV and nightclub comedian; last of the Rat Pack. Oct. 17.
Catherine Roraback, 87. Attorney who won 1965 Supreme Court that established the right to contraceptives and privacy. Oct. 17.
Teresa Brewer, 76. She topped the charts in the 1950s ("Till I Waltz Again With You.") Oct. 17.
William Crowe, 82. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ambassador to Britain. Oct. 18.
Max McGee, 75. Hero of first Super Bowl in 1967, helping Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10. Oct. 20.
R.B. Kitaj, 74. A key figure in the British Pop Art movement. Oct. 21.
Hans Stern, 85. Founded H. Stern jewelry empire. Oct. 26.
Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 89. His test-tube synthesis of DNA earned a 1959 Nobel Prize. Oct. 26.
Porter Wagoner, 80. Grand Ole Opry star; helped launch the career of Dolly Parton. Oct. 28.
Thomas J. Meskill, 79. Connecticut congressman and governor; later a federal judge. Oct. 29.
Robert Goulet, 73. Baritone made Broadway debut in "Camelot;" won Tony in 1968 for "The Happy Time." Oct. 30.
NOVEMBER:
Paul Tibbets, 92. Piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Nov. 1.
Igor Moiseyev, 101. Choreographer who transformed folk dance into a legitimate art, showcasing Russian culture. Nov. 2.
Luis Herrera Campins, 82. Former Venezuelan president; part of a generation of leaders who helped usher in democracy in the 1950s. Nov. 9.
Norman Mailer, 84. The pugnacious prince of American letters. Nov. 10.
Augustus Hawkins, 100. California's first black congressman, elected in 1962. Nov. 10.
Delbert Mann, 87. Directed "Marty," classic lonely-guy teleplay that became Oscar-winning film. Nov. 11.
Charlie Brady "C.B." Hauser, 90. College professor who took a stand against segregation in 1947 by refusing to give up a bus seat to a white. Nov. 11.
Ira Levin, 78. Best-selling novelist ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Boys From Brazil.") Nov. 12.
The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., 82. Pastor of church in Birmingham, Ala., where four girls died in a 1963 racist bombing. Nov. 15.
Joe Nuxhall, 79. Youngest major leaguer ever at age 15; later a Cincinnati sportscaster. Nov. 15.
Dick Wilson, 91. Played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who begged customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin." Nov. 19.
Milo Radulovich, 81. Serviceman championed by Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s. Nov. 19.
Ian Smith, 88. Rhodesia's last white prime minister; his attempts to resist black rule brought isolation and civil war. Nov. 20.
Herbert Saffir, 90. Engineer; created the five-category system to describe hurricane strength. Nov. 21.
Maurice Bejart, 80. Avant-garde French choreographer. Nov. 22.
Silvestre Herrera, 90. Awarded Medal of Honor for a one-man assault on an enemy position during World War II. Nov. 26.
Dr. J. Robert Cade, 80. Inventor of Gatorade. Nov. 27.
Bill Hartack, 74. Hall of Fame jockey; one of only two to win five Kentucky Derbys. Nov. 26.
Bill Willis, 86. Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns; Ohio State's first black football All-American. Nov. 27.
Sean Taylor, 24. Washington Redskins' star safety; known as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Nov. 27. Shot in his home.
Henry Hyde, 83. Illinois congressman steered impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Nov. 29.
Roger B. Smith, 82. Led General Motors Corp.; was subject of Michael Moore's documentary "Roger & Me." Nov. 29.
Evel Knievel, 69. Motorcycle daredevil known for spectacular jumps and bone-crushing crashes. Nov. 30.
DECEMBER:
Robert O. Anderson, 90. CEO of Atlantic Richfield Co. when it announced the discovery of North America's largest oil field. Dec. 1.
Elizabeth Hardwick, 91. Leading intellectual author ("Sleepless Nights") and critic. Dec. 2.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79. Avant-garde German composer; pioneer of electronic music. Dec. 5.
Roger M. King, 63. CBS and King World Productions executive; helped bring such stars as Oprah Winfrey to television. Dec. 8.
Rene J. Cappon, 83. Longtime Associated Press editor; the word master behind some of its best writers. Dec. 9.
Freddie Fields, 84. Colorful Hollywood agent, producer ("Glory"), studio executive. Dec. 11.
Ike Turner, 76. Rock innovator who teamed with wife Tina Turner (and denied abusing her). Dec. 12.
Rep. Julia Carson, 69. First black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress. Dec. 15.
Dan Fogelberg, 56. His gentle, poignant hits ("Longer," "Leader of the Band") helped define soft-rock. Dec. 16. Cancer.
J. Russell Coffey, 109. Oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I. Dec. 20.
Ken Hendricks, 66. His ABC Supply Co., a roofing and siding supply company, made him a billionaire. Dec. 21.
Michael Kidd, 92. Choreographer whose athletic dances ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") won him five Tonys and a special Oscar. Dec. 23.
Oscar Peterson, 82. Jazz pianist whose hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations were hugely influential. Dec. 23.
Benazir Bhutto, 54. Former Pakistan prime minister who returned from exile to challenge the current leader, Pervez Musharraf. Dec. 27. Assassinated.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
A Tsar Is Born
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1690757_1690766,00.html
Tuesday, Dec. 04, 2007
A Tsar Is Born
By Adi Ignatius
No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's. The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking. The affect is now seamless, which makes talking to the Russian President not just exhausting but often chilling. It's a gaze that says, I'm in charge.
This may explain why there is so little visible security at Putin's dacha, Novo-Ogarevo, the grand Russian presidential retreat set inside a birch- and fir-forested compound west of Moscow. To get there from the capital requires a 25-minute drive through the soul of modern Russia, past decrepit Soviet-era apartment blocks, the mashed-up French Tudor-villa McMansions of the new oligarchs and a shopping mall that boasts not just the routine spoils of affluence like Prada and Gucci but Lamborghinis and Ferraris too.
When you arrive at the dacha's faux-neoclassical gate, you have to leave your car and hop into one of the Kremlin's vehicles that slowly wind their way through a silent forest of snow-tipped firs. Aides warn you not to stray, lest you tempt the snipers positioned in the shadows around the compound. This is where Putin, 55, works. (He lives with his wife and two twentysomething daughters in another mansion deeper in the woods.) The rooms feel vast, newly redone and mostly empty. As we prepare to enter his spacious but spartan office, out walk some of Russia's most powerful men: Putin's chief of staff, his ideologist, the speaker of parliament—all of them wearing expensive bespoke suits and carrying sleek black briefcases. Putin, who rarely meets with the foreign press, then gives us 3 1/2 hours of his time, first in a formal interview in his office and then upstairs over an elaborate dinner of lobster-and-shiitake-mushroom salad, "crab fingers with hot sauce" and impressive vintages of Puligny-Montrachet and a Chilean Cabernet.
Vladimir Putin gives a first impression of contained power: he is compact and moves stiffly but efficiently. He is fit, thanks to years spent honing his black-belt judo skills and, these days, early-morning swims of an hour or more. And while he is diminutive—5 ft. 6 in. (about 1.7 m) seems a reasonable guess—he projects steely confidence and strength. Putin is unmistakably Russian, with chiseled facial features and those penetrating eyes. Charm is not part of his presentation of self—he makes no effort to be ingratiating. One senses that he pays constant obeisance to a determined inner discipline. The successor to the boozy and ultimately tragic Boris Yeltsin, Putin is temperate, sipping his wine only when the protocol of toasts and greetings requires it; mostly he just twirls the Montrachet in his glass. He eats little, though he twitchily picks the crusts off the bread rolls on his plate.
Putin grudgingly reveals a few personal details between intermittent bites of food: He relaxes, he says, by listening to classical composers like Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky. His favorite Beatles song is Yesterday. He has never sent an e-mail in his life. And while he grew up in an officially atheist country, he is a believer and often reads from a Bible that he keeps on his state plane. He is impatient to the point of rudeness with small talk, and he is in complete control of his own message.
He is clear about Russia's role in the world. He is passionate in his belief that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, particularly since overnight it stranded 25 million ethnic Russians in "foreign" lands. But he says he has no intention of trying to rebuild the U.S.S.R. or re-establish military or political blocs. And he praises his predecessors Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev for destroying a system that had lost the people's support. "I'm not sure I could have had the guts to do that myself," he tells us. Putin is, above all, a pragmatist, and has cobbled together a system—not unlike China's—that embraces the free market (albeit with a heavy dose of corruption) but relies on a strong state hand to keep order.
Like President George W. Bush, he sees terrorism as one of the most profound threats of the new century, but he is wary of labeling it Islamic. "Radicals," he says, "can be found in any environment." Putin reveals that Russian intelligence recently uncovered a "specific" terrorist threat against both Russia and the U.S. and that he spoke by phone with Bush about it.
What gets Putin agitated—and he was frequently agitated during our talk—is his perception that Americans are out to interfere in Russia's affairs. He says he wants Russia and America to be partners but feels the U.S. treats Russia like the uninvited guest at a party. "We want to be a friend of America," he says. "Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends" but only "auxiliary subjects to command." Asked if he'd like to correct any American misconceptions about Russia, Putin leans forward and says, "I don't believe these are misconceptions. I think this is a purposeful attempt by some to create an image of Russia based on which one could influence our internal and foreign policies. This is the reason why everybody is made to believe...[Russians] are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have...the dirt washed out of their beards and hair." The veins on his forehead seem ready to pop.
Elected Emperor
Putin has said that next spring, at the end of his second term as President, he will assume the nominally lesser role of Prime Minister. In fact, having nominated his loyal former chief of staff (and current Deputy Prime Minister) Dmitri Medvedev to succeed him as President, Putin will surely remain the supreme leader, master of Russia's destiny, which will allow him to complete the job he started. In his eight years as President, he has guided his nation through a remarkable transformation. He has restored stability and a sense of pride among citizens who, after years of Soviet stagnation, rode the heartbreaking roller coaster of raised and dashed expectations when Gorbachev and then Yeltsin were in charge. A basket case in the 1990s, Russia's economy has grown an average of 7% a year for the past five years. The country has paid off a foreign debt that once neared $200 billion. Russia's rich have gotten richer, often obscenely so. But the poor are doing better too: workers' salaries have more than doubled since 2003. True, this is partly a result of oil at $90 a barrel, and oil is a commodity Russia has in large supply. But Putin has deftly managed the windfall and spread the wealth enough so that people feel hopeful.
Russia's revival is changing the course of the modern world. After decades of slumbering underachievement, the Bear is back. Its billionaires now play on the global stage, buying up property, sports franchises, places at élite schools. Moscow exerts international influence not just with arms but also with a new arsenal of weapons: oil, gas, timber. On global issues, it offers alternatives to America's waning influence, helping broker deals in North Korea, the Middle East, Iran. Russia just made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran—a sign that Russia is taking the lead on that vexsome issue, particularly after the latest U.S. intelligence report suggested that the Bush Administration has been wrong about Iran's nuclear-weapons development. And Putin is far from done. The premiership is a perch that will allow him to become the longest-serving statesman among the great powers, long after such leaders as Bush and Tony Blair have faded from the scene.
But all this has a dark side. To achieve stability, Putin and his administration have dramatically curtailed freedoms. His government has shut down TV stations and newspapers, jailed businessmen whose wealth and influence challenged the Kremlin's hold on power, defanged opposition political parties and arrested those who confront his rule. Yet this grand bargain—of freedom for security—appeals to his Russian subjects, who had grown cynical over earlier regimes' promises of the magical fruits of Western-style democracy. Putin's popularity ratings are routinely around 70%. "He is emerging as an elected emperor, whom many people compare to Peter the Great," says Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center and a well-connected expert on contemporary Russia.
Putin's global ambitions seem straightforward. He certainly wants a seat at the table on the big international issues. But more important, he wants free rein inside Russia, without foreign interference, to run the political system as he sees fit, to use whatever force he needs to quiet seething outlying republics, to exert influence over Russia's former Soviet neighbors. What he's given up is Yeltsin's calculation that Russia's future requires broad acceptance on the West's terms. That means that on big global issues, says Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and former point man on Russia policy for the Clinton Administration, "sometimes Russia will be helpful to Western interests, and sometimes it will be the spoiler."
Up from the Ruins
How do Russians see Putin? For generations they have defined their leaders through political jokes. It's partly a coping mechanism, partly a glimpse into the Russian soul. In the oft told anecdotes, Leonid Brezhnev was always the dolt, Gorbachev the bumbling reformer, Yeltsin the drunk. Putin, in current punch lines, is the despot. Here's an example: Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for him help running the country. Stalin says, "Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." "Why blue?" Putin asks. "Ha!" says Stalin. "I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part."
Putin himself is sardonic but humorless. In our hours together, he didn't attempt a joke, and he misread several of our attempts at playfulness. As Henry Kissinger, who has met and interacted with Russian leaders since Brezhnev, puts it, "He does not rely on personal charm. It is a combination of aloofness, considerable intelligence, strategic grasp and Russian nationalism."
To fully understand Putin's accomplishments and his appeal, one has to step back into the tumult of the 1990s. At the end of 1991, just a few months after Yeltsin dramatically stood on a tank outside the parliament in Moscow to denounce—and deflate—a coup attempt by hard-liners, the Soviet Union simply ceased to exist. Yeltsin took the reins in Russia and, amid great hope and pledges of help from around the world, promised to launch an era of democracy and economic freedom. I arrived in Moscow a week later, beginning a three-year stint as a Russia correspondent.
I retain three indelible images from that time. The first: the legions of Ivy League—and other Western-educated "experts" who roamed the halls of the Kremlin and the government, offering advice, all ultimately ineffective, on everything from conducting free elections to using "shock therapy" to juice the economy to privatizing state-owned assets. The second: the long lines of impoverished old women standing in the Moscow cold, selling whatever they could scrounge from their homes—a silver candleholder, perhaps, or just a pair of socks. The third, more familiar image: a discouraged and embattled Yeltsin in 1993 calling in Russian-army tanks to shell his own parliament to break a deadlock with the defiant legislature when everything he was trying to do was going wrong.
Yeltsin bombed his way out of the threat of civil war and managed to hang on to power, but Russia was left hobbled. Virtually every significant asset—oil, banks, the media—ended up in the hands of a few "oligarchs" close to the President. Corruption and crime were rampant; the cities became violent. Paychecks weren't issued; pensions were ignored. Russia in 1998 defaulted on its foreign debt. The ruble and the financial markets collapsed, and Yeltsin was a spent force. "The '90s sucked," says Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor who was the State Department's special adviser for the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union under President Bill Clinton. "Putin managed to play on the resentment that Russians everywere were feeling." Indeed, by the time Putin took over in late 1999, there was nowhere to fall but up.
Path to Power
That Russia needed fixing was acknowledged by all. But how was it that Putin got the call? What was it that lifted him to power, and to the dacha in Novo-Ogarevo?
Putin's rise continues to perplex even devoted Kremlin observers. He was born into humble circumstances in St. Petersburg in 1952. His father had fought in World War II and later labored in a train-car factory. Putin's mother, a devout Orthodox Christian, had little education and took on a series of menial jobs. The family lived in a drab fifth-floor walk-up in St. Petersburg; Putin had to step over swarms of rats occupying the entranceway on his way to school. Putin's only ancestor of note was his paternal grandfather, who had served as a cook for both Lenin and Stalin, though there's no sign that this gave his family any special status or connections.
Putin describes his younger self as a poor student and a "hooligan." Small for his age, he got roughed by his contemporaries. So he took up sambo—a Soviet-era blend of judo and wrestling—and later just judo. From all accounts, he devoted himself to the martial art, attracted by both its physical demands and its contemplative philosophical core. "It's respect for your elders and opponents," he says in First Person, his question-and-answer memoir published in 2000. "It's not for weaklings."
It was the KGB that rescued Putin from obscurity—and turned the child into the man. Putin had begun to apply himself to schoolwork, and in 1975, during his senior year at Leningrad State University, he was approached by an impressive stranger who said, "I need to talk to you about your career assignment. I wouldn't like to specify exactly what it is yet." Putin, who had dreamed of becoming a spy, was intrigued. Within months he was being trained in counterintelligence. By the mid-1980s he was assigned to East Germany, where he worked undercover, pursuing intelligence on nato and German politicians. He was in Dresden, not Berlin where the action was, and probably would have been only a bit player in the Le Carré version of the cold war. But when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, so did Putin's KGB career. As angry crowds moved on the local KGB headquarters, Putin and his colleagues feverishly burned files that detailed agents' names and networks—so much paper, he recalls in the memoir, that "the furnace burst." Then he slipped into the crowd and watched as the newly liberated mobs sacked the detested building. Within two years, he left the KGB altogether.
Putin's big break was a friend's introduction to Anatoli Sobchak, the liberal mayor of St. Petersburg, who was happy to bring in an intelligent, no-nonsense outsider to help push his reformist agenda. Putin ran the office that registered businesses and promoted foreign investment. He was responsible for ensuring that President Clinton's visit to the city in 1996 went smoothly—it was the first time American officials saw Putin in action. But later that year, Sobchak, damaged by a perception of ineffectiveness and rumors of corruption, lost his re-election bid. As Putin tells us at the dacha, as a member of the losing team, he was suddenly untouchable. "Nobody would hire me there," he says.
So Putin headed to Moscow. What transpired next seemed to Kremlin watchers as unlikely as Chauncey Gardiner's unwitting rise to power in the Jerzy Kosinski novel Being There. Although Putin often says that he had no connections when he arrived in the capital in mid-1996, he had several powerful allies who landed him work in the Kremlin. He became deputy to the head of Yeltsin's general-affairs department. Within two years he was asked to head the FSB, the spy-agency successor to the disbanded KGB. Putin, in his memoir, says he received a call out of the blue asking him to head to the airport to meet Russia's Prime Minister, Sergei Kirienko. Kirienko offered congratulations. When Putin asked why, he replied, "The decree is signed. You have been appointed director of the FSB." Then, in August 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister. It's a grand title, but it doesn't come with much security: Putin was Yeltsin's fifth Prime Minister in 17 months. But Putin did far better than survive; within four months a declining Yeltsin asked Putin to take over as acting President. Putin tells us he initially declined but that Yeltsin raised it again, saying, "Don't say no." By the last day of 1999 Putin was running the country.
We ask if it had ever occurred to Putin that history would place him in such a role. "It never occurred to me," he says. "It still surprises me."
Experts generally believe that Putin won Yeltsin's endorsement because he was competent, because he wasn't part of any of the major Moscow factions competing for power and because his KGB past gave him a source of authority. But they also widely assume that he made a deal with Yeltsin and his family: in return for Yeltsin's endorsement, Putin would not pursue corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives, despite the rumors that surrounded the family's dealings. It's impossible to verify, but neither Yeltsin, who died this year, nor his well-connected daughter Tatyana Dyachenko was ever a subject of public investigation (though Putin quickly fired her from her position as a Kremlin image consultant). Indeed, Putin's first decree guaranteed Yeltsin and his family immunity from such probes. Putin explains things to us this way: "Mr. Yeltsin realized that I would be totally sincere and would spare no effort to fulfill my duties and would be honest and see that the interest of the country could be secured." Eight years on, one can't help seeing a parallel with the latest maneuverings in the Kremlin: just as Yeltsin rewarded Putin for his loyalty, now Putin is doing the same for his anointed successor, Medvedev. There is already a new Putin joke: Putin goes to a restaurant with Medvedev and orders a steak. The waiter asks, "And what about the vegetable?" Putin answers, "The vegetable will have steak too."
Taking Control
Putin is no vegetable. In 1999, when he assumed the role of acting President, he was a relative unknown. It was his response to a Chechen rebel incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus that quickly set him on a path toward national glory. Alexei Gromov, who has served with Putin as press secretary since he came to power, remembers being in the room when Putin told his wife Lyudmila that he was preparing to go on a New Year's Eve trip to the war zone to meet with the troops. She was worried about his safety and went along with him. In the end, the trip may have been no more than a calculated, if risky, photo op, but it was effective. Russians met their new leader and admired his courage and energy.
The following year Putin stepped up Russia's invasion of the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Rambo-style, he promised a quick and decisive victory, reiterating his earlier pledge to defeat enemy fighters "even in the toilet." Grozny, Chechnya's capital, was all but obliterated; Russia reassumed power and installed a puppet leader. Despite heartbreaking subsequent Chechen terrorist attacks—including a 2004 assault on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, where 339 civilians, most of them children, were killed—Russians by and large admire Putin for drawing the line in the south. Having watched Eastern Europe and the Soviet republics slip from Moscow's grip, Russians were happy to keep Chechnya—even a bombed-out Chechnya—in the fold.
To the West, meanwhile, Putin was a mystery. Russia watchers debated endlessly: Was he a pro-Western reformer? (He had worked for Sobchak.) Or a hard-liner? (He was a career KGB man.) Yet just as 9/11 helped define President Bush, so did external challenges allow Putin to grow into a leader. His first steps on the world stage were tentative. His global coming-out had occurred in Auckland at a 1999 meeting of heads of apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) nations. Sestanovich, who was traveling with President Clinton, remembers meeting Putin at Clinton's hotel suite. "He seemed rodentlike," says Sestanovich, "like an overgrown summer intern." But Clinton was willing to work with him. Putin tells us how, at an apec dinner at which he was feeling somewhat lost, Clinton crossed the room past other world leaders and leaned down to talk to him. "Volodya," Clinton said, using the familiar form of the name Vladimir, "I suggest we walk out together from this room." Putin rose to his feet, and the two men strolled out together. "Everyone applauded," Putin recalls. "I will remember that forever." It was Putin's only sign of softness during the 3 1/2 hours we spoke.
Clinton was not the only American who found something to like about Putin. Two years later, in a line that has haunted him ever since, President Bush declared that he had looked inside Putin's soul. It was their first meeting, at a summit in Slovenia, and Bush said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy...I was able to get a sense of his soul." We ask Putin to return the favor, to describe what he has sensed of the U.S. President's soul. He declines to get personal. "I have a very good personal relationship with Mr. Bush," he says. "He is a very reliable partner, a man of honor."
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 provided Putin with another defining moment. He was one of the first world leaders to offer condolences and help to President Bush. That probably led the U.S. to back off from stridently criticizing the Chechnya adventure. But the initial shared objectives between Putin and the Bush Administration did not last. Putin strongly opposed America's invasion of Iraq and established Russia as a steady voice of opposition to Bush's adventure, demanding that decisions on Iraq be made at the U.N. (where Russia, of course, has Security Council veto power). America's occupation of Iraq has affirmed Putin's sense that he was right. "If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country," Putin tell us. "But this undertaking is enormous. Iraq is a small but very proud nation." The debacle in Iraq plays into what is perhaps Putin's most cherished foreign-policy dictum: that nations shouldn't interfere in one another's affairs. And what that really means, of course, is that no one should interfere in Russia's affairs.
Another Putin joke: Putin and Bush are fishing on the Volga River. After half an hour Bush complains, "Vladimir, I'm getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, but I haven't seen a single one bothering you." Putin: "They know better than that."
A Ruthless Streak
Now that Putin has solidified his grip on power, he no longer seems overly concerned with courting Western approval. Despite a chorus of disapproving clucks from the West, Putin has shackled the press, muted the opposition, jailed tycoons who don't pledge fealty. In Russia this has been a terrible time to be a democrat, a journalist, an independent businessman. Just ask Garry Kasparov. The chess grandmaster—the highest-rated player of all time—is a far cry from stereotypically dysfunctional champions like Bobby Fischer. Kasparov has a keen political mind and a lively sense of humor. For years he has fought an increasingly lonely struggle as a democratic activist facing an uncompromising state. On Nov. 24, while holding a political rally in Moscow, he was arrested on a technicality and spent five days at Moscow's Petrovka 38 jail.
A week or so after Kasparov's release, we are sitting in Moscow's Cosmos Hotel, where he is taking part in a human-rights meeting. Assembled is a ragtag group of Russian activists, and here Kasparov is a star. (Even here his two bodyguards sandwich him whenever he walks about.) Unlike many of Putin's other critics, who seem fearful of chastising their leader openly, Kasparov isn't cowed. "Putin wants to rule like Stalin but live like Abramovich," he says, referring to Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian oil trader who owns London's Chelsea soccer team. "Putin's system is more like Mafia than democracy."
Putin's administration has blocked democrats like Kasparov from participating effectively in politics by making it all but impossible for them to meet the entry requirements. The President, in our discussion, routinely suggests that Kasparov is a stooge of the West because he spoke to the foreign press in English after his arrest. "If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God's sake," he says. Kasparov recently gave up his long-shot race for President.
Dmitri Muratov also knows the difficulties of life in the Putin era. A softspoken, heavyset man whose neatly trimmed beard is turning gray, Muratov is the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow newspaper, published twice a week, with a reputation for pursuing tough investigative pieces. In the past seven years, three of his journalists have been murdered; all were looking into corruption and wrongdoing. After the third murder, Muratov decided to close the 14-year-old paper to avoid putting any other journalist at risk. But his staff talked him out of it. The paper is perpetually harassed by officials around the country, but, Muratov notes with a weary smile, "we're still alive."
The last of Muratov's journalists to die, Anna Politkovskaya, was shot in the elevator of her apartment building last year on Oct. 7. Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer turned government critic living in London, accused Putin of sanctioning the killing. Within weeks, Litvinenko himself was dead too, killed by radiation poisoning from a mysterious dose of polonium 210. (Britain wants to charge a former KGB officer, Andre Lugovoy, who has just been elected to Russia's parliament, with the killing. He denies it, and Russian law prevents the extradition of Russian citizens.)
Muratov, for his part, doesn't know who ordered his journalists' killings. He says only that he blames "corruption," which has flourished during Putin's eight years.
Although few Russians seem to think Putin himself is corrupt, it is commonly believed that he is surrounded by business and political heavies who are amassing millions in payoffs. Indeed, if anything can bring him down, it may well be graft. As long as living standards rise, people are more likely to forgive the perception that officials are getting obscenely rich by demanding illicit payoffs. But if the economy stops growing—if the price of oil falls back to earth—Putin will face a challenge, whether from the masses in the streets or from military and civilian challengers.
One insider, who asked that his identity be protected, spelled out for us just one example of how the game is played, detailing the payments a prospective regional governor has to make to political bagmen in Moscow in order to get the Kremlin's nod for the post. For wealthier regions, such an endorsement can cost as much as $20 million, money that the politicians raise quietly from corporate "sponsors" that expect special treatment in return. The amount of money flowing to kingmakers in the Kremlin, in other words, is staggering.
When we ask about the view that he is surrounded by corrupt officials, Putin turns testy: "If you are so confident, then I presume you know the names and the systems and the tools...Write to us." As for Politkovskaya, who had been investigating policy failures and human-rights abuses in Chechnya when she was killed—and who authored the 2004 book Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy—Putin says he believes she was murdered by a provocateur to cast suspicion on his administration.
For all the attention the outside world pays to such cases, formal polls make it clear that within Russia, Putin's critics are in the minority. For every journalist distressed at the rollback of freedoms, there are scores of Russians who quietly applaud Putin's efforts to reassert stability. Once a year, when Putin takes phone calls from citizens around the country, tens of thousands of people try to get through. Listening to the calls, however screened and rehearsed they may be, one is struck by the ardor of the appeals to the President to get things done and by the broad range of information at Putin's fingertips. (A woman who lives on an island off Vladivostok complained about the local ferry service. Putin told her a bridge will soon be built to link the island to the mainland.)
Certainly life in Russia today is better than it has been for years. The stores are stocked with goods. The once worthless ruble is a genuine currency, strengthening against the dollar these days. Crime persists, but the cities are not as rough as in previous years.
And then there are the President's loudest and most visible defenders: members of Nashi (Ours, in Russian), the cultish pro-Putin youth movement. In mid-December, about 20,000 of the Nashi faithful from all over Russia gathered for a rally by the Kremlin walls to celebrate the recent victory of Putin's United Russia Party in elections to the parliament. From the stage, speakers, rock singers and rappers declared their patriotism and love for the President. A banner read, into the future with putin! Someone introduced Dasha, a 10-year-old member of Mishki (Bear Cubs), the new children's division of Nashi. "I love Russia," said Dasha. "I love teddy bears. I love Putin. Together we will win!"
I went to Nashi's Moscow headquarters a few days later and met with Lyubov Serikova, a pretty 22-year-old redhead from Russia's Chuvash Republic who is a rising star in the organization. She was thrilled with the recent election and credited Nashi with helping thwart an unnamed enemy's attempt to launch an "orange revolution" in Russia. Her world seemed conspiratorial, and she echoed Putin's own statements: those who run against the President were trying to bring the country down. Putin, she said, "has made Russia a leading country in just a few years."
When we finish talking, I take a look at an official Nashi poster hanging outside her office, which excoriates U.S. policies. It's reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda with its non sequitur acceleration of hysteria: "Tomorrow there will be war in Iran. The day after tomorrow Russia will be governed externally!" But this is no fringe group. Putin frequently visits Nashi's training camps and meets with its leaders. And from there he sometimes launches anti-Western tirades, including a recent blast at London authorities who are demanding the extradition of the suspected killer of Litvinenko.
Putin's mission is not to win over the West. It is to restore to Russians a sense of their nation's greatness, something they have not known for years. This is not idle dreaming. When historians talk about Putin's place in Russian history, they draw parallels with Stalin or the Tsars. Putin, one can't stress enough, is not a Stalin. There are no mass purges in Russia today, no broad climate of terror. But Putin is reconstituting a strong state, and anyone who stands in his way will pay for it. "Putin has returned to the mechanism of one-man rule," says Talbott of the Brookings Institution. "Yet it's a new kind of state, with elements that are contemporary and elements from the past."
And there's plenty that could go wrong. The depth of corruption, the pockets of militant unrest, the ever present vulnerability of the economy to swings in commodity prices—all this threatens to unravel the gains that have been made. But Putin has played his own hand well. As Prime Minister, he is set to see out the rest of the drama of Russia's re-emergence. And almost no one in Russia is in a position to stop him. If he succeeds, Russia will become a political competitor to the U.S. and to rising nations like China and India. It will be one of the great powers of the new world.
Back at the dacha, with snow falling lightly outside, our dinner and discussion continue. Putin has been irritable throughout, a grudging host. Suddenly, at 10 o'clock, he stands and abruptly ends the evening. "We've finished eating, there's nothing more on the table, so let's call it a day," he declares. Actually, the main course (choice of sturgeon or veal) and dessert ("bird's milk" cake)—lovingly printed in gold ink on the prepared menu cards—haven't yet been served. The Russian President's brusqueness is jarring. Have our questions angered him? Bored him? Does he have another appointment? It's not clear. "Bye bye," says Putin—in English—as he walks briskly out of the room. The work of rebuilding Russia, apparently, is never done.
—with reporting by Yuri Zarakhovich and Dario Thuburn/Moscow
Tuesday, Dec. 04, 2007
A Tsar Is Born
By Adi Ignatius
No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's. The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking. The affect is now seamless, which makes talking to the Russian President not just exhausting but often chilling. It's a gaze that says, I'm in charge.
This may explain why there is so little visible security at Putin's dacha, Novo-Ogarevo, the grand Russian presidential retreat set inside a birch- and fir-forested compound west of Moscow. To get there from the capital requires a 25-minute drive through the soul of modern Russia, past decrepit Soviet-era apartment blocks, the mashed-up French Tudor-villa McMansions of the new oligarchs and a shopping mall that boasts not just the routine spoils of affluence like Prada and Gucci but Lamborghinis and Ferraris too.
When you arrive at the dacha's faux-neoclassical gate, you have to leave your car and hop into one of the Kremlin's vehicles that slowly wind their way through a silent forest of snow-tipped firs. Aides warn you not to stray, lest you tempt the snipers positioned in the shadows around the compound. This is where Putin, 55, works. (He lives with his wife and two twentysomething daughters in another mansion deeper in the woods.) The rooms feel vast, newly redone and mostly empty. As we prepare to enter his spacious but spartan office, out walk some of Russia's most powerful men: Putin's chief of staff, his ideologist, the speaker of parliament—all of them wearing expensive bespoke suits and carrying sleek black briefcases. Putin, who rarely meets with the foreign press, then gives us 3 1/2 hours of his time, first in a formal interview in his office and then upstairs over an elaborate dinner of lobster-and-shiitake-mushroom salad, "crab fingers with hot sauce" and impressive vintages of Puligny-Montrachet and a Chilean Cabernet.
Vladimir Putin gives a first impression of contained power: he is compact and moves stiffly but efficiently. He is fit, thanks to years spent honing his black-belt judo skills and, these days, early-morning swims of an hour or more. And while he is diminutive—5 ft. 6 in. (about 1.7 m) seems a reasonable guess—he projects steely confidence and strength. Putin is unmistakably Russian, with chiseled facial features and those penetrating eyes. Charm is not part of his presentation of self—he makes no effort to be ingratiating. One senses that he pays constant obeisance to a determined inner discipline. The successor to the boozy and ultimately tragic Boris Yeltsin, Putin is temperate, sipping his wine only when the protocol of toasts and greetings requires it; mostly he just twirls the Montrachet in his glass. He eats little, though he twitchily picks the crusts off the bread rolls on his plate.
Putin grudgingly reveals a few personal details between intermittent bites of food: He relaxes, he says, by listening to classical composers like Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky. His favorite Beatles song is Yesterday. He has never sent an e-mail in his life. And while he grew up in an officially atheist country, he is a believer and often reads from a Bible that he keeps on his state plane. He is impatient to the point of rudeness with small talk, and he is in complete control of his own message.
He is clear about Russia's role in the world. He is passionate in his belief that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, particularly since overnight it stranded 25 million ethnic Russians in "foreign" lands. But he says he has no intention of trying to rebuild the U.S.S.R. or re-establish military or political blocs. And he praises his predecessors Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev for destroying a system that had lost the people's support. "I'm not sure I could have had the guts to do that myself," he tells us. Putin is, above all, a pragmatist, and has cobbled together a system—not unlike China's—that embraces the free market (albeit with a heavy dose of corruption) but relies on a strong state hand to keep order.
Like President George W. Bush, he sees terrorism as one of the most profound threats of the new century, but he is wary of labeling it Islamic. "Radicals," he says, "can be found in any environment." Putin reveals that Russian intelligence recently uncovered a "specific" terrorist threat against both Russia and the U.S. and that he spoke by phone with Bush about it.
What gets Putin agitated—and he was frequently agitated during our talk—is his perception that Americans are out to interfere in Russia's affairs. He says he wants Russia and America to be partners but feels the U.S. treats Russia like the uninvited guest at a party. "We want to be a friend of America," he says. "Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends" but only "auxiliary subjects to command." Asked if he'd like to correct any American misconceptions about Russia, Putin leans forward and says, "I don't believe these are misconceptions. I think this is a purposeful attempt by some to create an image of Russia based on which one could influence our internal and foreign policies. This is the reason why everybody is made to believe...[Russians] are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have...the dirt washed out of their beards and hair." The veins on his forehead seem ready to pop.
Elected Emperor
Putin has said that next spring, at the end of his second term as President, he will assume the nominally lesser role of Prime Minister. In fact, having nominated his loyal former chief of staff (and current Deputy Prime Minister) Dmitri Medvedev to succeed him as President, Putin will surely remain the supreme leader, master of Russia's destiny, which will allow him to complete the job he started. In his eight years as President, he has guided his nation through a remarkable transformation. He has restored stability and a sense of pride among citizens who, after years of Soviet stagnation, rode the heartbreaking roller coaster of raised and dashed expectations when Gorbachev and then Yeltsin were in charge. A basket case in the 1990s, Russia's economy has grown an average of 7% a year for the past five years. The country has paid off a foreign debt that once neared $200 billion. Russia's rich have gotten richer, often obscenely so. But the poor are doing better too: workers' salaries have more than doubled since 2003. True, this is partly a result of oil at $90 a barrel, and oil is a commodity Russia has in large supply. But Putin has deftly managed the windfall and spread the wealth enough so that people feel hopeful.
Russia's revival is changing the course of the modern world. After decades of slumbering underachievement, the Bear is back. Its billionaires now play on the global stage, buying up property, sports franchises, places at élite schools. Moscow exerts international influence not just with arms but also with a new arsenal of weapons: oil, gas, timber. On global issues, it offers alternatives to America's waning influence, helping broker deals in North Korea, the Middle East, Iran. Russia just made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran—a sign that Russia is taking the lead on that vexsome issue, particularly after the latest U.S. intelligence report suggested that the Bush Administration has been wrong about Iran's nuclear-weapons development. And Putin is far from done. The premiership is a perch that will allow him to become the longest-serving statesman among the great powers, long after such leaders as Bush and Tony Blair have faded from the scene.
But all this has a dark side. To achieve stability, Putin and his administration have dramatically curtailed freedoms. His government has shut down TV stations and newspapers, jailed businessmen whose wealth and influence challenged the Kremlin's hold on power, defanged opposition political parties and arrested those who confront his rule. Yet this grand bargain—of freedom for security—appeals to his Russian subjects, who had grown cynical over earlier regimes' promises of the magical fruits of Western-style democracy. Putin's popularity ratings are routinely around 70%. "He is emerging as an elected emperor, whom many people compare to Peter the Great," says Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center and a well-connected expert on contemporary Russia.
Putin's global ambitions seem straightforward. He certainly wants a seat at the table on the big international issues. But more important, he wants free rein inside Russia, without foreign interference, to run the political system as he sees fit, to use whatever force he needs to quiet seething outlying republics, to exert influence over Russia's former Soviet neighbors. What he's given up is Yeltsin's calculation that Russia's future requires broad acceptance on the West's terms. That means that on big global issues, says Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and former point man on Russia policy for the Clinton Administration, "sometimes Russia will be helpful to Western interests, and sometimes it will be the spoiler."
Up from the Ruins
How do Russians see Putin? For generations they have defined their leaders through political jokes. It's partly a coping mechanism, partly a glimpse into the Russian soul. In the oft told anecdotes, Leonid Brezhnev was always the dolt, Gorbachev the bumbling reformer, Yeltsin the drunk. Putin, in current punch lines, is the despot. Here's an example: Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for him help running the country. Stalin says, "Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." "Why blue?" Putin asks. "Ha!" says Stalin. "I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part."
Putin himself is sardonic but humorless. In our hours together, he didn't attempt a joke, and he misread several of our attempts at playfulness. As Henry Kissinger, who has met and interacted with Russian leaders since Brezhnev, puts it, "He does not rely on personal charm. It is a combination of aloofness, considerable intelligence, strategic grasp and Russian nationalism."
To fully understand Putin's accomplishments and his appeal, one has to step back into the tumult of the 1990s. At the end of 1991, just a few months after Yeltsin dramatically stood on a tank outside the parliament in Moscow to denounce—and deflate—a coup attempt by hard-liners, the Soviet Union simply ceased to exist. Yeltsin took the reins in Russia and, amid great hope and pledges of help from around the world, promised to launch an era of democracy and economic freedom. I arrived in Moscow a week later, beginning a three-year stint as a Russia correspondent.
I retain three indelible images from that time. The first: the legions of Ivy League—and other Western-educated "experts" who roamed the halls of the Kremlin and the government, offering advice, all ultimately ineffective, on everything from conducting free elections to using "shock therapy" to juice the economy to privatizing state-owned assets. The second: the long lines of impoverished old women standing in the Moscow cold, selling whatever they could scrounge from their homes—a silver candleholder, perhaps, or just a pair of socks. The third, more familiar image: a discouraged and embattled Yeltsin in 1993 calling in Russian-army tanks to shell his own parliament to break a deadlock with the defiant legislature when everything he was trying to do was going wrong.
Yeltsin bombed his way out of the threat of civil war and managed to hang on to power, but Russia was left hobbled. Virtually every significant asset—oil, banks, the media—ended up in the hands of a few "oligarchs" close to the President. Corruption and crime were rampant; the cities became violent. Paychecks weren't issued; pensions were ignored. Russia in 1998 defaulted on its foreign debt. The ruble and the financial markets collapsed, and Yeltsin was a spent force. "The '90s sucked," says Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor who was the State Department's special adviser for the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union under President Bill Clinton. "Putin managed to play on the resentment that Russians everywere were feeling." Indeed, by the time Putin took over in late 1999, there was nowhere to fall but up.
Path to Power
That Russia needed fixing was acknowledged by all. But how was it that Putin got the call? What was it that lifted him to power, and to the dacha in Novo-Ogarevo?
Putin's rise continues to perplex even devoted Kremlin observers. He was born into humble circumstances in St. Petersburg in 1952. His father had fought in World War II and later labored in a train-car factory. Putin's mother, a devout Orthodox Christian, had little education and took on a series of menial jobs. The family lived in a drab fifth-floor walk-up in St. Petersburg; Putin had to step over swarms of rats occupying the entranceway on his way to school. Putin's only ancestor of note was his paternal grandfather, who had served as a cook for both Lenin and Stalin, though there's no sign that this gave his family any special status or connections.
Putin describes his younger self as a poor student and a "hooligan." Small for his age, he got roughed by his contemporaries. So he took up sambo—a Soviet-era blend of judo and wrestling—and later just judo. From all accounts, he devoted himself to the martial art, attracted by both its physical demands and its contemplative philosophical core. "It's respect for your elders and opponents," he says in First Person, his question-and-answer memoir published in 2000. "It's not for weaklings."
It was the KGB that rescued Putin from obscurity—and turned the child into the man. Putin had begun to apply himself to schoolwork, and in 1975, during his senior year at Leningrad State University, he was approached by an impressive stranger who said, "I need to talk to you about your career assignment. I wouldn't like to specify exactly what it is yet." Putin, who had dreamed of becoming a spy, was intrigued. Within months he was being trained in counterintelligence. By the mid-1980s he was assigned to East Germany, where he worked undercover, pursuing intelligence on nato and German politicians. He was in Dresden, not Berlin where the action was, and probably would have been only a bit player in the Le Carré version of the cold war. But when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, so did Putin's KGB career. As angry crowds moved on the local KGB headquarters, Putin and his colleagues feverishly burned files that detailed agents' names and networks—so much paper, he recalls in the memoir, that "the furnace burst." Then he slipped into the crowd and watched as the newly liberated mobs sacked the detested building. Within two years, he left the KGB altogether.
Putin's big break was a friend's introduction to Anatoli Sobchak, the liberal mayor of St. Petersburg, who was happy to bring in an intelligent, no-nonsense outsider to help push his reformist agenda. Putin ran the office that registered businesses and promoted foreign investment. He was responsible for ensuring that President Clinton's visit to the city in 1996 went smoothly—it was the first time American officials saw Putin in action. But later that year, Sobchak, damaged by a perception of ineffectiveness and rumors of corruption, lost his re-election bid. As Putin tells us at the dacha, as a member of the losing team, he was suddenly untouchable. "Nobody would hire me there," he says.
So Putin headed to Moscow. What transpired next seemed to Kremlin watchers as unlikely as Chauncey Gardiner's unwitting rise to power in the Jerzy Kosinski novel Being There. Although Putin often says that he had no connections when he arrived in the capital in mid-1996, he had several powerful allies who landed him work in the Kremlin. He became deputy to the head of Yeltsin's general-affairs department. Within two years he was asked to head the FSB, the spy-agency successor to the disbanded KGB. Putin, in his memoir, says he received a call out of the blue asking him to head to the airport to meet Russia's Prime Minister, Sergei Kirienko. Kirienko offered congratulations. When Putin asked why, he replied, "The decree is signed. You have been appointed director of the FSB." Then, in August 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister. It's a grand title, but it doesn't come with much security: Putin was Yeltsin's fifth Prime Minister in 17 months. But Putin did far better than survive; within four months a declining Yeltsin asked Putin to take over as acting President. Putin tells us he initially declined but that Yeltsin raised it again, saying, "Don't say no." By the last day of 1999 Putin was running the country.
We ask if it had ever occurred to Putin that history would place him in such a role. "It never occurred to me," he says. "It still surprises me."
Experts generally believe that Putin won Yeltsin's endorsement because he was competent, because he wasn't part of any of the major Moscow factions competing for power and because his KGB past gave him a source of authority. But they also widely assume that he made a deal with Yeltsin and his family: in return for Yeltsin's endorsement, Putin would not pursue corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives, despite the rumors that surrounded the family's dealings. It's impossible to verify, but neither Yeltsin, who died this year, nor his well-connected daughter Tatyana Dyachenko was ever a subject of public investigation (though Putin quickly fired her from her position as a Kremlin image consultant). Indeed, Putin's first decree guaranteed Yeltsin and his family immunity from such probes. Putin explains things to us this way: "Mr. Yeltsin realized that I would be totally sincere and would spare no effort to fulfill my duties and would be honest and see that the interest of the country could be secured." Eight years on, one can't help seeing a parallel with the latest maneuverings in the Kremlin: just as Yeltsin rewarded Putin for his loyalty, now Putin is doing the same for his anointed successor, Medvedev. There is already a new Putin joke: Putin goes to a restaurant with Medvedev and orders a steak. The waiter asks, "And what about the vegetable?" Putin answers, "The vegetable will have steak too."
Taking Control
Putin is no vegetable. In 1999, when he assumed the role of acting President, he was a relative unknown. It was his response to a Chechen rebel incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus that quickly set him on a path toward national glory. Alexei Gromov, who has served with Putin as press secretary since he came to power, remembers being in the room when Putin told his wife Lyudmila that he was preparing to go on a New Year's Eve trip to the war zone to meet with the troops. She was worried about his safety and went along with him. In the end, the trip may have been no more than a calculated, if risky, photo op, but it was effective. Russians met their new leader and admired his courage and energy.
The following year Putin stepped up Russia's invasion of the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Rambo-style, he promised a quick and decisive victory, reiterating his earlier pledge to defeat enemy fighters "even in the toilet." Grozny, Chechnya's capital, was all but obliterated; Russia reassumed power and installed a puppet leader. Despite heartbreaking subsequent Chechen terrorist attacks—including a 2004 assault on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, where 339 civilians, most of them children, were killed—Russians by and large admire Putin for drawing the line in the south. Having watched Eastern Europe and the Soviet republics slip from Moscow's grip, Russians were happy to keep Chechnya—even a bombed-out Chechnya—in the fold.
To the West, meanwhile, Putin was a mystery. Russia watchers debated endlessly: Was he a pro-Western reformer? (He had worked for Sobchak.) Or a hard-liner? (He was a career KGB man.) Yet just as 9/11 helped define President Bush, so did external challenges allow Putin to grow into a leader. His first steps on the world stage were tentative. His global coming-out had occurred in Auckland at a 1999 meeting of heads of apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) nations. Sestanovich, who was traveling with President Clinton, remembers meeting Putin at Clinton's hotel suite. "He seemed rodentlike," says Sestanovich, "like an overgrown summer intern." But Clinton was willing to work with him. Putin tells us how, at an apec dinner at which he was feeling somewhat lost, Clinton crossed the room past other world leaders and leaned down to talk to him. "Volodya," Clinton said, using the familiar form of the name Vladimir, "I suggest we walk out together from this room." Putin rose to his feet, and the two men strolled out together. "Everyone applauded," Putin recalls. "I will remember that forever." It was Putin's only sign of softness during the 3 1/2 hours we spoke.
Clinton was not the only American who found something to like about Putin. Two years later, in a line that has haunted him ever since, President Bush declared that he had looked inside Putin's soul. It was their first meeting, at a summit in Slovenia, and Bush said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy...I was able to get a sense of his soul." We ask Putin to return the favor, to describe what he has sensed of the U.S. President's soul. He declines to get personal. "I have a very good personal relationship with Mr. Bush," he says. "He is a very reliable partner, a man of honor."
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 provided Putin with another defining moment. He was one of the first world leaders to offer condolences and help to President Bush. That probably led the U.S. to back off from stridently criticizing the Chechnya adventure. But the initial shared objectives between Putin and the Bush Administration did not last. Putin strongly opposed America's invasion of Iraq and established Russia as a steady voice of opposition to Bush's adventure, demanding that decisions on Iraq be made at the U.N. (where Russia, of course, has Security Council veto power). America's occupation of Iraq has affirmed Putin's sense that he was right. "If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country," Putin tell us. "But this undertaking is enormous. Iraq is a small but very proud nation." The debacle in Iraq plays into what is perhaps Putin's most cherished foreign-policy dictum: that nations shouldn't interfere in one another's affairs. And what that really means, of course, is that no one should interfere in Russia's affairs.
Another Putin joke: Putin and Bush are fishing on the Volga River. After half an hour Bush complains, "Vladimir, I'm getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, but I haven't seen a single one bothering you." Putin: "They know better than that."
A Ruthless Streak
Now that Putin has solidified his grip on power, he no longer seems overly concerned with courting Western approval. Despite a chorus of disapproving clucks from the West, Putin has shackled the press, muted the opposition, jailed tycoons who don't pledge fealty. In Russia this has been a terrible time to be a democrat, a journalist, an independent businessman. Just ask Garry Kasparov. The chess grandmaster—the highest-rated player of all time—is a far cry from stereotypically dysfunctional champions like Bobby Fischer. Kasparov has a keen political mind and a lively sense of humor. For years he has fought an increasingly lonely struggle as a democratic activist facing an uncompromising state. On Nov. 24, while holding a political rally in Moscow, he was arrested on a technicality and spent five days at Moscow's Petrovka 38 jail.
A week or so after Kasparov's release, we are sitting in Moscow's Cosmos Hotel, where he is taking part in a human-rights meeting. Assembled is a ragtag group of Russian activists, and here Kasparov is a star. (Even here his two bodyguards sandwich him whenever he walks about.) Unlike many of Putin's other critics, who seem fearful of chastising their leader openly, Kasparov isn't cowed. "Putin wants to rule like Stalin but live like Abramovich," he says, referring to Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian oil trader who owns London's Chelsea soccer team. "Putin's system is more like Mafia than democracy."
Putin's administration has blocked democrats like Kasparov from participating effectively in politics by making it all but impossible for them to meet the entry requirements. The President, in our discussion, routinely suggests that Kasparov is a stooge of the West because he spoke to the foreign press in English after his arrest. "If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God's sake," he says. Kasparov recently gave up his long-shot race for President.
Dmitri Muratov also knows the difficulties of life in the Putin era. A softspoken, heavyset man whose neatly trimmed beard is turning gray, Muratov is the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow newspaper, published twice a week, with a reputation for pursuing tough investigative pieces. In the past seven years, three of his journalists have been murdered; all were looking into corruption and wrongdoing. After the third murder, Muratov decided to close the 14-year-old paper to avoid putting any other journalist at risk. But his staff talked him out of it. The paper is perpetually harassed by officials around the country, but, Muratov notes with a weary smile, "we're still alive."
The last of Muratov's journalists to die, Anna Politkovskaya, was shot in the elevator of her apartment building last year on Oct. 7. Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer turned government critic living in London, accused Putin of sanctioning the killing. Within weeks, Litvinenko himself was dead too, killed by radiation poisoning from a mysterious dose of polonium 210. (Britain wants to charge a former KGB officer, Andre Lugovoy, who has just been elected to Russia's parliament, with the killing. He denies it, and Russian law prevents the extradition of Russian citizens.)
Muratov, for his part, doesn't know who ordered his journalists' killings. He says only that he blames "corruption," which has flourished during Putin's eight years.
Although few Russians seem to think Putin himself is corrupt, it is commonly believed that he is surrounded by business and political heavies who are amassing millions in payoffs. Indeed, if anything can bring him down, it may well be graft. As long as living standards rise, people are more likely to forgive the perception that officials are getting obscenely rich by demanding illicit payoffs. But if the economy stops growing—if the price of oil falls back to earth—Putin will face a challenge, whether from the masses in the streets or from military and civilian challengers.
One insider, who asked that his identity be protected, spelled out for us just one example of how the game is played, detailing the payments a prospective regional governor has to make to political bagmen in Moscow in order to get the Kremlin's nod for the post. For wealthier regions, such an endorsement can cost as much as $20 million, money that the politicians raise quietly from corporate "sponsors" that expect special treatment in return. The amount of money flowing to kingmakers in the Kremlin, in other words, is staggering.
When we ask about the view that he is surrounded by corrupt officials, Putin turns testy: "If you are so confident, then I presume you know the names and the systems and the tools...Write to us." As for Politkovskaya, who had been investigating policy failures and human-rights abuses in Chechnya when she was killed—and who authored the 2004 book Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy—Putin says he believes she was murdered by a provocateur to cast suspicion on his administration.
For all the attention the outside world pays to such cases, formal polls make it clear that within Russia, Putin's critics are in the minority. For every journalist distressed at the rollback of freedoms, there are scores of Russians who quietly applaud Putin's efforts to reassert stability. Once a year, when Putin takes phone calls from citizens around the country, tens of thousands of people try to get through. Listening to the calls, however screened and rehearsed they may be, one is struck by the ardor of the appeals to the President to get things done and by the broad range of information at Putin's fingertips. (A woman who lives on an island off Vladivostok complained about the local ferry service. Putin told her a bridge will soon be built to link the island to the mainland.)
Certainly life in Russia today is better than it has been for years. The stores are stocked with goods. The once worthless ruble is a genuine currency, strengthening against the dollar these days. Crime persists, but the cities are not as rough as in previous years.
And then there are the President's loudest and most visible defenders: members of Nashi (Ours, in Russian), the cultish pro-Putin youth movement. In mid-December, about 20,000 of the Nashi faithful from all over Russia gathered for a rally by the Kremlin walls to celebrate the recent victory of Putin's United Russia Party in elections to the parliament. From the stage, speakers, rock singers and rappers declared their patriotism and love for the President. A banner read, into the future with putin! Someone introduced Dasha, a 10-year-old member of Mishki (Bear Cubs), the new children's division of Nashi. "I love Russia," said Dasha. "I love teddy bears. I love Putin. Together we will win!"
I went to Nashi's Moscow headquarters a few days later and met with Lyubov Serikova, a pretty 22-year-old redhead from Russia's Chuvash Republic who is a rising star in the organization. She was thrilled with the recent election and credited Nashi with helping thwart an unnamed enemy's attempt to launch an "orange revolution" in Russia. Her world seemed conspiratorial, and she echoed Putin's own statements: those who run against the President were trying to bring the country down. Putin, she said, "has made Russia a leading country in just a few years."
When we finish talking, I take a look at an official Nashi poster hanging outside her office, which excoriates U.S. policies. It's reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda with its non sequitur acceleration of hysteria: "Tomorrow there will be war in Iran. The day after tomorrow Russia will be governed externally!" But this is no fringe group. Putin frequently visits Nashi's training camps and meets with its leaders. And from there he sometimes launches anti-Western tirades, including a recent blast at London authorities who are demanding the extradition of the suspected killer of Litvinenko.
Putin's mission is not to win over the West. It is to restore to Russians a sense of their nation's greatness, something they have not known for years. This is not idle dreaming. When historians talk about Putin's place in Russian history, they draw parallels with Stalin or the Tsars. Putin, one can't stress enough, is not a Stalin. There are no mass purges in Russia today, no broad climate of terror. But Putin is reconstituting a strong state, and anyone who stands in his way will pay for it. "Putin has returned to the mechanism of one-man rule," says Talbott of the Brookings Institution. "Yet it's a new kind of state, with elements that are contemporary and elements from the past."
And there's plenty that could go wrong. The depth of corruption, the pockets of militant unrest, the ever present vulnerability of the economy to swings in commodity prices—all this threatens to unravel the gains that have been made. But Putin has played his own hand well. As Prime Minister, he is set to see out the rest of the drama of Russia's re-emergence. And almost no one in Russia is in a position to stop him. If he succeeds, Russia will become a political competitor to the U.S. and to rising nations like China and India. It will be one of the great powers of the new world.
Back at the dacha, with snow falling lightly outside, our dinner and discussion continue. Putin has been irritable throughout, a grudging host. Suddenly, at 10 o'clock, he stands and abruptly ends the evening. "We've finished eating, there's nothing more on the table, so let's call it a day," he declares. Actually, the main course (choice of sturgeon or veal) and dessert ("bird's milk" cake)—lovingly printed in gold ink on the prepared menu cards—haven't yet been served. The Russian President's brusqueness is jarring. Have our questions angered him? Bored him? Does he have another appointment? It's not clear. "Bye bye," says Putin—in English—as he walks briskly out of the room. The work of rebuilding Russia, apparently, is never done.
—with reporting by Yuri Zarakhovich and Dario Thuburn/Moscow
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