Vladimir putin

Yet all of the shifting duties among state organs that Putin proposes is a feature, not a bug, of the new system. It provides him with both the time and opportunity to land in a senior government post from which he can continue to guide, if no longer dictate, the course of the system that he built. The new system is less for establishing checks and balances than establishing a framework for consensus, where the ultimate authority could have little to do with an organizational chart in the constitution. … [Read more...] about Vladimir Putin will not be president for life but he is sure to have power

Ukrainians went to the polls on Sunday after five years locked in a proxy war with Russia. In 2014, Russian troops annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, and Moscow fueled a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. The United Nations estimates that, as of February 15, the fighting has claimed almost 13,000 lives, with at least 3,321 civilian deaths and an estimated 9,500 combatants killed. … [Read more...] about Ukraine’s President is running against — Vladimir Putin

NT told us two film projects impressed her last year. One was Leviathan, an Oscar-nominated film about a man in a small Russian town struggling against corruption and despair, and opposition activist Alexey Navalny’s investigative documentary about Chaika, detailing the way the prosecutor general dealt with the murderers of 12 people, four of them children, and stole enormous sums of money from the country. “That story was from our real life,” NT told The Daily Beast. … [Read more...] about Pussy Riot’s Sexy Spike-Heeled Satire Targets Putin and His Prosecutor

“Putin is offended at the Americans for punishing his crooked bureaucrats, and he’s making Russian orphans pay with their lives. It’s the move of a weak politician who has no good options for revenge,” said Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Mercator Group, a Moscow-based think tank. … [Read more...] about Putin Signs Law Banning U.S. Adoptions of Russian Orphans

Russia's leading opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and other Kremlin foes have denounced Putin's move as an effort to extend his rule after his term ends, but it didn't immediately trigger any major protest. The vagueness of proposed changes helped mute the public response, and the dismissal of Medvedev along with his Cabinet also diverted attention from the suggested amendments. … [Read more...] about Putin sends his constitutional proposals to Parliament