Beware Putin
To The Editor:

Russians love the "Boss". [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's election victory fulfills the Russian need to have a strong, autocratic leader for a people who have never understood what a democracy is. Russian history is one of suppression of the masses by leaders who prey upon perceived external threats.

The U.S. plan of placing anti-missile defenses in members of the former Warsaw pact nations has created an angry, outraged Putin. He continues to claim for local consumption that the missiles are a threat to Russia, though the defenses could not prevail against a massive Russian missile launch.

The expansion of NATO by the inclusion of former Soviet satellites was seen by the Kremlin as rubbing Soviet failure in their faces. To revise the past, essential private enterprise had to be subverted to the control of the central government. The nationalization of the oil industry and direct appointment of local governors which disenfranchised the voters are steps back in time. By voiding the Conventional Weapons Treaty, Putin has informed former Eastern Block nations that Russia is a force to be reckoned with and mobilized internal Russian support for his strong leadership.

Strangely, [U.S. President George W.] Bush's stubbornness in insisting on proceeding with installing anti-missile defenses may be a proper response to a hostile Russia. Conflicts between the two nations will continue and grow over time. Russia, with oil wealth, poses more of a threat than did the bankrupt Soviet Union.

The U.S. and our allies must reconcile the realities of this new Russia with the dream of a democratic state friendly to our goals. It is harsh to realize that once again we are facing frictions with a former enemy. Unless we reconcile the facts with false hopes impacting the future of Russia will be left to revisionist KGB types that Putin represents. Edward Horn Baldwin, New York