MUST READ: THE RESURGENCE OF RUSSIA

The Resurgence of Russia
Evaluating the Country's Evolution Under Putin

by Gregory Pfeifer & Michele Kelemen

Russia is taking a newly assertive role on the world stage. Its economy is booming, thanks to abundant energy supplies, and its rhetoric echoes that of the Cold War. A five-part series explores President Vladimir Putin's Russia and compares it to the Soviet Union.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped up to the podium at a security conference in Munich last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other top Western officials at the meeting were in for a surprise: Putin unleashed an angry barrage of criticism against the West — chiefly the United States — for trying to force its will on the world.

"Unilateral, often illegitimate, actions haven't solved a single problem," he said. "More than that, they've generated new human tragedies and sources of tension."

Putin's "Munich speech" drew instant comparisons to another diplomatic outburst: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's notorious shoe-thumping at the United Nations 50 years ago, during an angry outburst against Western imperialism.

Speculation about a possible new Cold War may have been exactly what the Russian president wanted. Fifteen years after the Soviet Union's collapse, the Kremlin is once again bidding for great-power status on the world stage.

Booming sales of oil and gas are driving Russia's economy to new levels, and Moscow is eager to prove that its humiliating years of post-Communist uncertainty are over.

But Russia under Putin is far from the kind of democratic society Western countries believed would develop from the Soviet Union's ashes in 1991. The president has ended democratic reforms and reinstituted authoritarian rule, curtailed freedoms and returned parts of the economy to state control. And he has introduced an aggressive foreign policy that opposes Western countries on issues such as the war in Iraq and the expansion of NATO.

Putin's policies have made him hugely popular at home, where he's appointed former KGB officers like himself and other loyal officials to key positions in government and business. Putin, who is barred by the Russian Constitution from serving a third term, is so powerful that any favored successor he names will almost certainly win the presidential election next year.

As a newly stable Russia prepares for the post-Putin era, NPR examines what kind of country it has become, and whether there is a real chance for a new Cold War between the aspiring energy superpower and the West.

...

Part One: Russian Foreign Policy Hints at a New Cold War

Part Two: Russia Under Putin: Echoes of the Soviet Era

Part Three: Russia's New Dissidents Defend Human Rights

Part Four: What Happened to Russian Democracy?

Part Five: U.S. Warily Eyes Thorny Relationship with Russia