Below The Beltway

President Bush is in Ukraine today and endorsed the idea of expanding NATO to include both Ukraine and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia:
KIEV, Ukraine, April 1 — President Bush championed expansion of NATO further into the former Soviet Union on Tuesday and declared that Russia “will not have a veto” over the alliance’s decision [...]

Over at Slate, Anne Applebaum wonders why the Russians bother to hold elections:
Why did anyone bother holding an election at all? Given that the inner circle of ex-KGB officers that controls the Kremlin also controls the country’s media, its legal system, its parliament, and its major companies, why do they need elections? Why didn’t Vladimir [...]

Perhaps it was inevitable, but it’s fairly clear that Russians are giving up on the idea that they live in a democracy:
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia, March 2 — Voters slogged through cold rain and mud Sunday to cast their ballots at Precinct No. 1619 on Pushkin Street here, though many expressed feelings about the state of democracy [...]

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Dimitri Medvedev has been elected to succeed incoming Prime Minister power behind the throne Vladimir Putin:
MOSCOW, March 2 — After 24 hours of voting across 11 time-zones, Russians handed Dmitry Medvedev an overwhelming victory in the presidential election Sunday despite a lackluster campaign that was more coronation than [...]

Not that it should come as a surprise:
MOSCOW — Dmitri A. Medvedev, Russia’s first deputy prime minister and the presumptive successor to President Vladimir V. Putin, on Monday committed the Kremlin to long-term support in backing Serbia against an independent Kosovo.
Mr. Medvedev appeared in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. It [...]

Russia has just escalated the war of words over Kosovo’s independence from Serbia:
(CNN) — Russia has not ruled out using force to resolve the dispute over Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate, Moscow’s ambassador to NATO warned on Friday.
“If the EU works out a single [...]

Not surprisingly, the Russians are siding with the Serbians over Kosovo’s declaration of independence:
Russia denounced Kosovo’s independence declaration Sunday, warning that the move threatened to ignite a new conflict in the Balkans and calling on NATO and U.N. officials in the territory to nix the decision.
Russia requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which [...]

Well, they’re back in the news again:
PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo declared itself a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an “independent and democratic state” backed by the U.S. and key European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.
“Kosovo is a republic _ an independent, democratic and sovereign state,” parliament speaker Jakup [...]

Time Magazine has named Russian President Vladimir Putin their Person of the Year for 2007:
Russia lives in history—and history lives in Russia. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union cast an ominous shadow over the world. It was the U.S.’s dark twin. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from [...]

As I noted yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin named Deputy Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev, a relative unknown who has never been elected to any office, to succeed him as President of Russia. Given that Medvedev is a Putin appointee, protege, and loyalist, it seemed pretty obvious that the appointment was somehow designed to keep Putin [...]