Word: powers
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Putin studiously avoids defining Yeltsin's legacy but hints broadly in his public appearances that central power under Yeltsin was feeble. Some regional leaders, he claims, "forgot that there was a President." Until he became Prime Minister, Chechnya was handled with "amateurism," he says, and left to fester to the point that it became a deadly danger...
...ultimate symbol of state-sponsored corruption and cynical manipulation of power is the Yeltsin "Family." It includes Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko; his onetime chief of staff Valentin Yumashev; and a number of powerful financiers, including Boris Berezovsky. The group played a major role in engineering Yeltsin's retirement and Putin's rise. And though corruption allegations against the Family have disappeared from most front pages, the heat is still on. A Swiss prosecutor recently told a Russian newspaper that relatives and associates of Yeltsin's remain under investigation in his country...
...Yumashev, are actively involved in his election campaign. But clouds seem to be thickening over the head of Berezovsky, the most unpopular and pugnacious of the so-called oligarchs. A belief is growing among Russia's political and business elite that Putin wants to destroy Berezovsky's political power. There is less agreement about Putin's motives: Is this the start of a campaign against oligarchs or simply a piece of self-promotion...
...some areas, Putin will probably be predictable. Look for him to move early to push through a constitutional amendment extending the presidential term from four years to seven. This would give him 11 years in power, assuming he's re-elected in 2004. And as President, Putin will be discreetly ruthless in his dealings with opposition-minded political heavyweights. Finally, expect him to continue his rock-hard line on Chechnya. The breakaway republic's warlords do not just want independence, he believes. They want to demolish the Russian Federation. Putin speaks of direct rule over the republic and threatens...
...crowd. Prying eyes would slide right by the slight, spare figure with the bland, expressionless face. The perfect anonymity of a spy. He built a career on being a nonentity, the man you can't know, operating in the twilight world of cold war espionage, where power lies with the man who is a mystery to all but himself...