Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Strobe Talbott: The making of Vladimir Putin
Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony of accepting the credentials of the new foreign ambassadors in Aleksandrovsky (Alexander's) Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, on June 27, 2014.
In late January 2000, William Safire wrote a column in the New York Times under the headline "Putinism Looms." Vladimir Putin had been acting president of the Russian Federation for only a month but Safire had already seen that the new Kremlin leader was bent on developing a "cult of personality," "suppressing the truth" and "the resurgence of Russian power."
