Same dance, different partner?

Vladmir Putin, the “President” of the Russian Federation, has apparently decided he’d rather be a Cold War opponent than a NATO ally. Reports are coming in that he has dissolved the Russian government.

Russian news agencies cite the Kremlin as saying that President Vladimir Putin dissolved the government Wednesday.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov asked the Kremlin to dissolve his government, Russian news agencies reported, with less than three months remaining before parliamentary elections.

Fradkov made the decision based on “the approaching major political events in the country and a desire to give the president full freedom in making decisions, including personnel,” Fradkov was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying. A Kremlin spokesman could not immediately comment on the report.

Oooookay. So, Putin thinks there’s “approaching major political events” that will require him to have “full freedom in making decisions”? Funny, but that sounds remarkably familiar to those of us who remember the days of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. It sounds like a man who wants to be able to roll tanks and launch missiles without having to worry about gaining the support of the Federal Assembly. Sounds like a dictator in the mold of Josef Stalin.

This is the man who President Bush said was “very straight forward and trustworthy” based on a “sense of his soul.” It wouldn’t be the first time our President was wrong.