Oct 30, 2006

"Hello, Nakhodka, I'm listening."

Last week brought Russians their annual call-in show with Vladimir Putin. This is the highly scripted exercise whenby "average” Russians call-in to talk with Putin about important issues etc. The President always looks calm and in-charge, with a bevy of facts and statistics he seemingly knows off the top of his head.

Yet, so often in contemporary Russian politics, it is not so much what is said as what is left unsaid. As Jamestown noted, some issues were deemed so unimportant, they did not even merit a question. A few of the unimportant issues the Kremlin chose to ignore:

Russia’s chairmanship of the G-8
Declining relations with the United States and NATO
The situation in the Middle East
Iran’s nuclear program
Chechnya and terrorism
Russia’s delayed entry into the WTO

'It's Springtime for Russia and Vladimir....'

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