Watch Putin

By David Aikman

"The world has watched in dismay as Russian President Vladimir Putin has steadily dismantled Russia?s democratic freedoms since he first became president nearly nine years ago. Last week Russian police violently broke up an opposition protest demonstration. This week Russian Human Rights activists were protesting a new Putin bill to declare treasonous even certain forms of criticism of the government.

We Americans often don't pay much attention to what is going on inside other countries. But one thing is certain, regimes that suppress their own people don't leave their violence at home. Almost invariably, they export their autocracy to their neighbors. We've already seen this in Russia's bullying of Georgia, a former Soviet republic. Watch carefully for Putin's next aggressive move on his neighbors."