ABSTRACT
In the West, the consensus view of Putin’s Russia is decidedly negative. The initial sympathy toward a president who assumed power in a seemingly ungovernable country gave way to disappointment and in some cases outrage.1 During Putin’s presidency, Russia abandoned the election of governors, reclaimed for the state the commanding heights of the economy, prosecuted political enemies of the president, further limited press freedom, created a presidential “pocket party” that controls parliament, and witnessed the murders of numerous opposition figures. In the eyes of almost all Western observers, these policies compared unfavorably to the democratizing initiatives under Yeltsin.
