"Actually, he's almost become a czar, just witout using this name. The range of his today's power and influence in Russia is - in fact - almost the same like czar's."
I heard he changed the laws so all of the governors of Russia's provinces are now appointed by him instead of elected. With all the things he's doing, I wonder why he has a 73% approval rating?
"Supposedly he's our ally in the War on Terror".
Good you've added "supposedly"."
He's a pretty weird guy. First he endorses Bush during the 2004 election, and he's helped Bush before too. I remember a while back he had a news conference where he said that Russian intelligence had told Bush that Iraq had WMDs, at a time when all our liberals were whining about the missing WMDs.
Then, during the Ukraine election, he started talking about plots by the West to meddle in Russian affairs, etc.
Personally, I think Putin is a decent person, though autocratic, but we'll have to wait and see.
Apparently Putin and Bush are close friends, despite Putin's anti-western remarks.