Worry Surrounds Putin

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is a popular leader. He’s been tough on rebellious Chechnya, making Russians proud of their military might. Pensioners are getting their checks again, and the economy is looking up. That counts with most Russians for whom the collapse of the Soviet Union meant uncertainty and poverty. What doesn’t count so much with Russians but should in Washington is Putin’s authoritarian streak, demonstrated in his merciless assault on political freedoms and growing intolerance of media criticism.

The 48-year-old president’s first year in office produced a mixed bag of economic accomplishments and democratic setbacks. Putin has demonstrated his commitment to economic progress by pushing through much-needed tax reform and embarking on deregulation of state monopolies in natural gas and electricity.

This is a strong showing, but politically the onetime KGB operative is month by month drawing the country back to the Soviet days of strong, centralized power and hard intolerance of dissent.

Putin has tried to convince outsiders that he is not retreating from Russia’s democratic gains, declaring: “I assure you that there is no danger that the whole structure of the democratic society as it was created in the last 10 years will be dismantled.” But his warped image of democracy is one in which the power of the center stands unchallenged. He has curtailed the authority of regional governors and in elections held last month helped to install military and security officers as heads of regional administrations.

Russian media outlets that did not toe the Kremlin line in the Chechnya war have paid dearly. Andrei Babitsky, a Radio Liberty reporter critical of the campaign, was detained last January and held in seclusion for weeks before resurfacing. An independent TV network--Media-Most’s NTV--was raided, and its owner, Vladimir A. Gusinsky, briefly was jailed. Gusinsky is now in a Spanish jail awaiting extradition, while Russian tax authorities have mounted a legal assault to liquidate NTV.

For Putin, media’s job is to give full support to his leadership. That was made clear last September when the Kremlin released the government’s new information security doctrine. Russian liberals see it for what it is: a regime of sanctions against a critical press.

Putin’s can-do image and his conviction that Russia is a great power that needs to reestablish itself in the world have made him popular at home. But the undemocratic methods he is using are taking Russia backward, and that should worry the incoming Bush administration and its Western allies. Clearly, an assertive democratic Russia would be a challenge, but an authoritarian one would be a threat to global security.