"Putin's Chilly Responses Darken the Political Clouds"
Pretty horrible what's happened in Russia recently. The public responsiveness of Putin et al. has been shockingly weak, it seems.
Excerpts:
[Putin's] first public remarks - "Today all Russia suffers for you" - made briefly, before dawn, were addressed to the region's president and leaders of its security agencies, not to those who suffered most.
His remarks and the orders he issued - to close the region's borders, to find the terrorists involved, to organize assistance for the victims - were meant to project, again, Mr. Putin's carefully cultivated image as the steely, decisive leader of a country in need. ...
But in the wake of yet another of Russia's seemingly endless crises, Mr. Putin's image appears less and less persuasive to those longing for answers. ...
All of the attacks have been carried out by terrorists linked to the separatist war in Chechnya, and much of the public's anger has turned toward them. But the government's handling of the attacks and Mr. Putin's public response have also stoked simmering discontent that rarely surfaces in today's political discourse. ...
In the days after two airliners crashed almost simultaneously, officials discounted the possibility of terrorism, assertions that were openly mocked, given the coincidence of two planes breaking up in midair within minutes. ...
[S]ince investigators discovered evidence of bombs onboard, Mr. Putin has said nothing, neither to express sorrow nor to demand justice. Nor has he spoke about a suicide bombing at the subway, which rent a late summer evening only two and half miles from the Kremlin.
In democracies, there is an expectation that public figures will inform and reassure a nation in grief, but Russia's form of democracy retains elements of the Soviet Union's penchant for secrecy.
Excerpts:
[Putin's] first public remarks - "Today all Russia suffers for you" - made briefly, before dawn, were addressed to the region's president and leaders of its security agencies, not to those who suffered most.
His remarks and the orders he issued - to close the region's borders, to find the terrorists involved, to organize assistance for the victims - were meant to project, again, Mr. Putin's carefully cultivated image as the steely, decisive leader of a country in need. ...
But in the wake of yet another of Russia's seemingly endless crises, Mr. Putin's image appears less and less persuasive to those longing for answers. ...
All of the attacks have been carried out by terrorists linked to the separatist war in Chechnya, and much of the public's anger has turned toward them. But the government's handling of the attacks and Mr. Putin's public response have also stoked simmering discontent that rarely surfaces in today's political discourse. ...
In the days after two airliners crashed almost simultaneously, officials discounted the possibility of terrorism, assertions that were openly mocked, given the coincidence of two planes breaking up in midair within minutes. ...
[S]ince investigators discovered evidence of bombs onboard, Mr. Putin has said nothing, neither to express sorrow nor to demand justice. Nor has he spoke about a suicide bombing at the subway, which rent a late summer evening only two and half miles from the Kremlin.
In democracies, there is an expectation that public figures will inform and reassure a nation in grief, but Russia's form of democracy retains elements of the Soviet Union's penchant for secrecy.
// 9/04/2004 
