Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek. He previously was correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years. His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. It was released this week.

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A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and
the Caucasus

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Note on Putin

Reporters in Moscow are weighing in on Vladimir Putin's latest anti-Western broadside. Peter Finn of the Washington Post has this account of Putin's attack today against his political opponents as pawns of the West.

It's rooted in Russia's traditional seige mantra -- the country is surrounded by enemies, and infiltrated by traitors, the story goes. Yet it's also uncanny how Putin has morphed smoothly from a failed junior KGB officer into a politician of the first rank.

The West will have years to figure out how to reach a modus vivendi with him.

Photo: Opendemocracy
Photo rights: Creative Commons

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posted by Steve at 6:16 PM

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