ABSTRACT
Vladimir Putin was chosen president of Russia in an anticlimactic election on March 26, 2000. He received a majority of the votes (52.9 percent) in the first round, with Communist leader Zyuganov (29.2 percent) and nine other candidates trailing far behind. Forty-seven years old, lean, vigorous, and an expert at judo, Putin stood in sharp contrast to the tired, old former president who had anointed him three months earlier. His energy even while still only acting president underscored that contrast. During January and February of 2000 Putin fired or demoted several cabinet ministers and other Kremlin insiders closely connected with Yeltsin. In mid-April, a few weeks after his
election but before his inauguration, Putin succeeded where Yeltsin had failed by convincing the Duma to ratify the START II, albeit with reservations unacceptable to Washington. That modest step helped counter the impact of a new national security doctrine Putin had approved back in January, which took a distinctly more confrontational stance toward the West than a document issued several years earlier.
