When Russian President Vladimir Putin sits next to his fireplace and Christmas tree, summing up the success and failures for 2012, he will find that the results achieved by Russia and him personally are ambiguous at best. “I'm all right,” said Russia’s “National Leader” in a meeting with experts from the Valdai Club in October, which this author attended. Yes, Putin was able to win reelection for a fourth term (assuming the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev was his third). But this past year marked the beginning of a turbulent period for the Russian leader and his United Russia party.
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