Putin's Growing Nose

One wonders if Russian President Vladimir Putin owns stock in the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, manufacturer of the anti-motion sickness drug Dramamine. After all, the man -- his reputation at least -- seems to be on a permanent roller coaster ride. When he was first elected to Russia's high office, he was hailed as a man possessing crystal-clear democratic convictions, only to trip over his own clumsy -- and not-exactly-democratic -- attempts to meddle in the Ukrainian elections. He was hailed by Bush as a staunch partner in the war against terror, only to fall on his face as a result of massive human rights abuses in Chechnya. He was also seen as a man who would guide Russia back into the globalized, free-market economy, but then he directed the state-controlled break up of the oil giant Yukos (and since has stage-managed a conviction of former company-head Mikhail Khodorkovsky). Even his big day in the sun -- the May 9 celebration of the 60th anniversary of VE day -- served more to highlight his autocratic leanings than his professions of democracy.

At the moment, the Putin roller-coaster finds itself once again screaming earthwards into yet another deep trough of worldwide skepticism.

Exhibit One: Despite the fact that the rest of the world considers Soviet dictator Josef Stalin one of history's most brutal dictators, he was ever-present during Putin's World War II celebrations earlier this month. Indeed, Putin even failed to condemn the Soviet invasion of Poland which resulted from the 1939 Stalin-Hitler non-aggression pact. Now, a Polish magazine is calling on its readers to send thousands of postcards to Putin which -- with a little help from Photoshop -- depict him as the fairy-tale liar Pinocchio. The Russian government is "concerned" by anti-Russian sentiment in the Polish media.

Exhibit Two: The Russian government has announced plans to buy up a controlling stake in the natural gas firm Gazprom. True, investors the world over are licking their lips at the news. After all, Russia had said it would open up Gazprom to foreign investment after nailing down majority ownership in the company. But a requirement of 50 percent state ownership is hardly the behavior one would expect of a country whose president says he is committed to the idea of free markets. Indeed, the move only became necessary because the state oil giant Rosneft -- originally slated to merge with Gazprom -- gobbled up the gas company Yuganskeftegas (one shard of the demolished Yukos behemoth) in a particularly shady, state-orchestrated deal and was too overly sated to live up to its promise of joining with Gazprom.

Exhibit Three: A dramatic fuel shortage in Ukraine -- which receives 80 percent of its oil and gas from neighboring Russia -- comes as the direct result of Russian oil companies turning off the taps. Russian fuel magnates say it is the result of repair work being undertaken on pipelines and refineries, but the shortage began immediately after Ukraine froze fuel prices in the country. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko thinks the move is a direct result of the black eye Putin suffered when Ukraine chose (democratically) to give the boot to its pro-Russian and Putin-backed government last fall. "Oil deliveries to Ukraine are being deliberately stopped, even though all contracts have been paid for," Tymoshenko told the BBC.

And then, of course, there's the Khodorkovsky case. Somebody get out the Dramamine. (2:15 p.m. CET)

Superfriends: Germany Hearts France Edition

Whatever Russian President Vladimir Putin's tactics, he's still more popular in Germany than George W. Bush. The Allensbach Institute recently conducted a poll about politics in Germany, and while some of the results were to be expected -- for instance, that within Germany, the Christian Democratic Union is still the most popular party -- others came as more of a surprise. When asked which country they consider to be Germany's best friend, 41 percent chose France, as opposed to just 16 percent for the US. When the poll was conducted ten years ago, the US was the clear choice, with 48 percent. But the Iraq war has had an immense impact on US-German relations, one which may take a long time for the US to recover from. George W. Bush, while the most recognized political figure in the poll, also had the most negative ratings: Sixteen percent of those asked said they have a good impression, 70 percent said their impression was negative. And while George W. Bush got a scathing review by the German public, Putin came up third on the most popular list, with a positive rating of 34 percent. Still, this year's poll shows a slight improvement for the US over the May 2003 result, when only 11 percent chose it as Germany's superfriend. But then Russia, too, is up: From zero percent in 1995, to six percent in this most recent poll. (12:48 p.m. CET)

War Crimes Tribunal Speeds Things Up

For the first time, judges in the Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have referred a war crimes case back to Bosnian courts. The case of Radovan Stankovic, a Bosnia Serb charged with raping Muslim women in 1992, has been handed over to the newly formed Bosnian War Crimes Chamber, established to deal with the legal legacy of war crimes committed during the break up of Yugoslavia. Stankovic's alleged crimes took place in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca during a Serbian assault on the town. His case marks the beginning of a process whereby the International War Crimes Tribunal will begin sending out all but the most senior-level cases to other courts, in an effort to complete its task by 2010. The Tribunal was originally established in 1993 in order to prosecute "serious violations of international humanitarian law" in the former Yugoslavia, but the process has taken longer than was first thought. Stankovic is one of more than 50 war crimes suspects currently awaiting trial in The Hague. (11:15 a.m. CET)

The Pope Rocks