(EDM) The Kremlin press service announced last week that President Vladimir Putin would not celebrate the 15thanniversary of his first election, which occurred on March 26, 2000 (RBC.ru, March 26). Indeed, many murky circumstances cloud his improbable arrival to the summit of power as Boris Yeltsin’s hand-picked successor, which he probably does not wish to reflect upon at present; the image of his omnipotent leadership needs to remain spotless. So instead, Putin opted to mark the day with an address to the board of the Federal Security Service (FSB), in which he revealed that Western special services were already planning actions to destabilize the internal situation in Russia during the parliamentary elections in 2016 and presidential elections in 2018 (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, March 26). One issue that Putin did not find opportune to mention was the murder of his defiant liberal opponent Boris Nemtsov, exactly a month prior, right under the shadow of the Kremlin’s towers (Moscow Echo, March 27). […]
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