President Vladimir Putin

Chechen President Akhmad Kadryov was killed in a bomb blast, ending another Kremlin-backed plan to bring "peace and order" back to Chechnya (May 10). The blast was a heavy blow to Russia's plan of creating a puppet country that would follow the wishes of President Vladimir Putin and his lackeys. Chechnya has fought Russia for decades in order to become its own independent nation, free to rule itself. Russia has raped, pillaged and humiliated the people of Chechnya, as documented by the absurd number of human rights allegations brought against it. Yet the people still fight on. Although the bomb blast was a tragedy because lives were lost, it was more a sign that the Chechens will not concede to false leaders.

Russia is a country adrift, President Dmitry Medvedev told a vast audience that gathered Thursday beneath the gold chandeliers of the Kremlin to hear his state of the union address. Russia is lounging on a crumbling network of leftover Soviet oil infrastructure and nuclear weapons, he said. Russia has conducted a foreign policy fueled by "nostalgia and prejudice," and law enforcement is riddled with "unscrupulous" agents, he added. In a wide-ranging 100-minute speech, Medvedev seemed eager to set himself apart from former President Vladimir Putin, who molded Medvedev's career for years, preceded him in the Kremlin and is broadly understood to have kept his status as the most powerful figure in Russian politics.

Re "An Ambitious Russia Won't Trade Growth for Green," Commentary, May 24: The Kyoto Protocol's greenhouse-gas trading market offers an unparalleled opportunity for Russia to achieve President Vladimir Putin's economic-efficiency goals by attracting investment that can drive growth up and drive pollution down. The U.S. sulfur dioxide trading market blazed this trail, showing utilities how to reduce acid rain pollution dramatically while maintaining robust growth. Putin's decision to bring Russia into both the World Trade Organization and the Kyoto Protocol together is eminently sensible.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Saturday that it could expect no easing of Russia's foreign policy under his protege, president-elect Dmitry Medvedev. At his first meeting with a foreign leader since his election, Medvedev told visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would seek continuity in foreign affairs. Putin, speaking to reporters at a joint news briefing with Merkel before the Medvedev meeting, dismissed Western hopes that his successor, to be sworn in as president in May, would strike a softer tone in foreign policy.

Re "Stalin's Bash Doesn't Hold a Candle," Oct. 8: The article's description of a few of the extravagant gifts received by President Vladimir Putin at his 50th birthday party in Moscow was certainly noteworthy. As a college professor who occasionally writes for publications, I appreciated especially the gift of three pages of text by the former deputy prime minister of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. This text, addressed to Putin, was composed solely of words beginning with the letter P and ended with praise: "Po Planete postavyat pamyatniki Pervomy Prezidentu Planety Putinu" (All around the planet they will put up monuments to the first president of the planet, Putin)

In "U.S. Takes Russia for Granted at Its Peril" (Commentary, May 1), Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen Cohen's statement is absolutely correct: "Sept. 11 notwithstanding, the post-Cold War nuclear world is more dangerous than the Cold War period itself. The main reason is the instability of Russia's nuclear infrastructure." We continue to include Russia on our watch list of targets due to its economic and military instability and have established our military presence to stabilize former Soviet republics to help maintain their own autonomy from Moscow and to defend their own nuclear stockpiles.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Saturday that it could expect no easing of Russia's foreign policy under his protege, president-elect Dmitry Medvedev. At his first meeting with a foreign leader since his election, Medvedev told visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would seek continuity in foreign affairs. Putin, speaking to reporters at a joint news briefing with Merkel before the Medvedev meeting, dismissed Western hopes that his successor, to be sworn in as president in May, would strike a softer tone in foreign policy.

Russia is a country adrift, President Dmitry Medvedev told a vast audience that gathered Thursday beneath the gold chandeliers of the Kremlin to hear his state of the union address. Russia is lounging on a crumbling network of leftover Soviet oil infrastructure and nuclear weapons, he said. Russia has conducted a foreign policy fueled by "nostalgia and prejudice," and law enforcement is riddled with "unscrupulous" agents, he added. In a wide-ranging 100-minute speech, Medvedev seemed eager to set himself apart from former President Vladimir Putin, who molded Medvedev's career for years, preceded him in the Kremlin and is broadly understood to have kept his status as the most powerful figure in Russian politics.

Russians have this expression: Who's guilty? "They look for someone to blame, a scapegoat, when anything goes wrong," Robert Edelman, a Russian history professor at UC San Diego, was saying by telephone Friday. "It's an unpleasant side of the culture." We in the United States have a similar expression. It's called passing the buck. I called Edelman, one of the nation's leading authorities on Soviet/Russian sports, to ask his opinion of the Russian Olympic Committee's threat to boycott Sunday's closing ceremony if its sudden barrage of protests--the latest concerned Russian Irina Slutskaya's second-place finish to American Sarah Hughes in figure skating--isn't taken seriously by the International Olympic Committee.

Wherever he goes, Anatoly Gorbunov is greeted by awed gazes, whispers and requests to take his picture. It's the kind of treatment well-known to movie stars, but Gorbunov is just a regular guy -- who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Russia's most powerful and popular man, President Vladimir Putin. Gorbunov, a businessman from the southern city of Volgodonsk, is not related to Putin and has never met the former KGB agent who was catapulted to the presidency 2 1/2 years ago. But the resemblance makes people do double takes.

Re "An Ambitious Russia Won't Trade Growth for Green," Commentary, May 24: The Kyoto Protocol's greenhouse-gas trading market offers an unparalleled opportunity for Russia to achieve President Vladimir Putin's economic-efficiency goals by attracting investment that can drive growth up and drive pollution down. The U.S. sulfur dioxide trading market blazed this trail, showing utilities how to reduce acid rain pollution dramatically while maintaining robust growth. Putin's decision to bring Russia into both the World Trade Organization and the Kyoto Protocol together is eminently sensible.

Chechen President Akhmad Kadryov was killed in a bomb blast, ending another Kremlin-backed plan to bring "peace and order" back to Chechnya (May 10). The blast was a heavy blow to Russia's plan of creating a puppet country that would follow the wishes of President Vladimir Putin and his lackeys. Chechnya has fought Russia for decades in order to become its own independent nation, free to rule itself. Russia has raped, pillaged and humiliated the people of Chechnya, as documented by the absurd number of human rights allegations brought against it. Yet the people still fight on. Although the bomb blast was a tragedy because lives were lost, it was more a sign that the Chechens will not concede to false leaders.

Re "Stalin's Bash Doesn't Hold a Candle," Oct. 8: The article's description of a few of the extravagant gifts received by President Vladimir Putin at his 50th birthday party in Moscow was certainly noteworthy. As a college professor who occasionally writes for publications, I appreciated especially the gift of three pages of text by the former deputy prime minister of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. This text, addressed to Putin, was composed solely of words beginning with the letter P and ended with praise: "Po Planete postavyat pamyatniki Pervomy Prezidentu Planety Putinu" (All around the planet they will put up monuments to the first president of the planet, Putin)

Wherever he goes, Anatoly Gorbunov is greeted by awed gazes, whispers and requests to take his picture. It's the kind of treatment well-known to movie stars, but Gorbunov is just a regular guy -- who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Russia's most powerful and popular man, President Vladimir Putin. Gorbunov, a businessman from the southern city of Volgodonsk, is not related to Putin and has never met the former KGB agent who was catapulted to the presidency 2 1/2 years ago. But the resemblance makes people do double takes.

In "U.S. Takes Russia for Granted at Its Peril" (Commentary, May 1), Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen Cohen's statement is absolutely correct: "Sept. 11 notwithstanding, the post-Cold War nuclear world is more dangerous than the Cold War period itself. The main reason is the instability of Russia's nuclear infrastructure." We continue to include Russia on our watch list of targets due to its economic and military instability and have established our military presence to stabilize former Soviet republics to help maintain their own autonomy from Moscow and to defend their own nuclear stockpiles.

Russians have this expression: Who's guilty? "They look for someone to blame, a scapegoat, when anything goes wrong," Robert Edelman, a Russian history professor at UC San Diego, was saying by telephone Friday. "It's an unpleasant side of the culture." We in the United States have a similar expression. It's called passing the buck. I called Edelman, one of the nation's leading authorities on Soviet/Russian sports, to ask his opinion of the Russian Olympic Committee's threat to boycott Sunday's closing ceremony if its sudden barrage of protests--the latest concerned Russian Irina Slutskaya's second-place finish to American Sarah Hughes in figure skating--isn't taken seriously by the International Olympic Committee.

President Obama on Tuesday said he was confident in Chicago's ability to host the G8 gathering of world leaders and played down the notion that security concerns had anything to do with the decision to move the May meeting from Chicago to Camp David. In response to a question during a news briefing in Washington, Obama noted that the NATO summit scheduled for the same weekend will still be held in Chicago, bringing him and other world leaders to the city. "I always have confidence in Chicago being able to handle security issues," said Obama, whose 2008 presidential election night victory party was held in Grant Park with a massive crowd in attendance.

The governor of Russia's Irkutsk region was killed in a helicopter crash along with at least three other people, Russian news agencies reported. Gov. Igor Yesipovsky was appointed in April 2008 by then-President Vladimir Putin. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, RIA news agency said. Irkutsk is about 3,100 miles east of Moscow and about twice the size of Germany.