Steve Levine: Putin's Labyrinth, The New Russia July 14, 2008

Steve Levine: Putin's Labyrinth, The New Russia

Steve LeVine, Chief Foreign Affairs Writer, BusinessWeek; Author, Putin's Labyrinth

LeVine talks about the country Putin helped shape and the problems that plague Russia today

Russia's rich oil reserves are helping the country regain prominence. Under Vladimir Putin and his sucessor, Dmitry Medvedev, nationalism has grown as well. Is it a return to Soviet-era systems and beliefs? Or has the nation moved into a different paradigm? LeVine says the country is stained by a "culture of death," from assassinations of state critics to possible Kremlin indifference in hostage crises.

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