MOSCOW -- The year 2004 has had mixed blessings for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He won re-election in a landslide, and though the results were probably rigged, by and large they still reflected voters' sympathies well enough: Russia likes its president.
He silenced his most vocal opponents in the mass media. Oppositional political parties have been reduced to the role of court jesters, lending legitimacy to a progressively authoritarian regime.
So far so good, one is tempted to say, while marveling at the dazzling success of a man who was practically unknown to Russians only six years ago. Yet, in the last months of 2004, banana peels lay in wait for him like determined jihad fighters. Spoiled by previous successes, Putin slipped on every one of them.
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