Vladimir V Putin

This is no grand reinvention, just a subtle aggregation of small, surprising gestures. Still, recent conciliatory signals from Moscow are enough to make analysts believe that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Russia, the cash-rich, oil-soaked country that railed against the West while shutting down political opposition at home, is groping for new footing under heavy fiscal pressure.

Russians from a broad spectrum of political movements protested in several cities Saturday, unified by their discontent over how Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has struggled to gird the country against the global financial crisis. In the Far East port city of Vladivostok, more than 2,000 demonstrators marched along downtown streets chanting, "Putin, resign!"