Putin speaking at a press conference in Russia's Karelia region in 2000

"Cellphone penetration has surged to 60 percent countrywide and to 80 or 90 percent in the big cities, and 25 million Russians are estimated to have surfed the Internet unimpeded in 2006, in contrast to China, where the government screens websites. Nor has there been serious infringement on intellectual and cultural life, which by all indicators has been rebounding from a low point during the economic hard times after 1991. In the vast majority of court cases that are nonpolitical, the judiciary functions better than in the 1990s, and jury trials have been made compulsory for the most severe crimes. Economically, private capital still predominates, despite state inroads in the energy field. As for the business class, it has made far more money during Putin’s reign than it did during Yeltsin’s. Forbes magazine registered not a single Russian billionaire in 1999 or 2000, in the aftermath of the 1998 crash. In 2006 it listed 33, the third highest total in the world (behind the United States and Germany), and their net worth had soared from $91 billion to $172 billion during the preceding year..."

"Economic strength has fed political strength. Putin’s aura, however, goes beyond GDP and family incomes. His approval ratings have been flat at the 70 to 80 percent level since his inauguration, remarkably impervious to failures and embarrassments. He won reelection with 71 percent of the vote in March 2004, or 18 percentage points more than he polled four years before. Electoral fraud accounts at best for a tiny fraction of this showing. Rightly or wrongly, the average citizen lauds Putin for his businesslike style and for bringing the country order and self-respect. His reputation sails miles above that of his policies: polls consistently show large minorities or pluralities doubting specific decisions on, say, inflation or corruption while keeping the faith in the architect of those policies."

Harvard Magazine printed one letter in response to this piece:

RUSSIAN—AND U.S.—INSTINCTS

Professor Timothy Colton (“The Enigmatic Mr. Putin,” May-June, page 40) provides a very perceptive and excellent review of Russia and Putin. The significant final sentence is: “We will have a modest chance to influence Russia’s developmental choices, if this time around we can imagine a place for it in the global community in which its worst instincts are restrained and its best instincts are encouraged.” To this I would like to add three words: “and our own.”

J. Richard Warbasse, M.D. ’54
Westover, Md.

You can download a PDF version Prof. Colton's article here.