President Bush and Russian President Putin seemed to get along famously last Thursday in Bratislava. And at their post-meeting press conference, President Bush was visibly pleased when Putin stated publicly that Russia’s choice of democracy will never be reversed. Unfortunately, there is no connection between what Putin says and what he does. In the last few years he has steadily eroded Russia’s democracy; today that country is, in fact, the only major country that is less democratic today than it was when President Bush took office in January 2001. And Putin’s recent decisions to go ahead with its sale of...