>From Microsoft's SLATE magazine: >"We shall strengthen the multiparty system. We shall strengthen civil society and do everything to uphold media freedom," Putin said after a campaign in which he arrested a political opponent, solidified his personal control of Parliament, refused to debate his rivals, and severely curtailed other campaigns' access to media. Still, in a separate scene piece deep inside the [Washington] Post, one Muscovite suggested that the ubiquitous images of Putin aren't so bad. "This is not Turkmenistan," he said. "The pictures are irony, not Stalin." <
Jim D.
