...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...on Wednesday told pro-Russian rebels fighting in east Ukraine to halt plans for independence referendums and said his troops had pulled back from the border, in a potential breakthrough in the worst showdown between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
The Russian leader also hailed a planned May 25 presidential election in Ukraine -- previously criticized by the Kremlin -- as a "move in the right direction".