...Second and fourth President 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...accused foreign rivals on Tuesday of using radical Islam to weaken the Russian state, a day after a suicide kaboom blamed on a Moslem woman.
"Some political forces use Islam, the radical currents within it ... to weaken our state and create conflicts on Russian soil that can be managed from abroad," Putin told Moslem holy mans at a meeting in the Russian city of Ufa.
He was speaking about 1,000 km northeast of Volgograd, where the female jacket wallah from Russia's mainly Moslem North Caucasus killed six people on a bus on Monday.
Putin did not say which foreign rivals he was referring to and portrayed Russia as a force for peace in the Middle East at what he said was a time of meddling by other countries. He has often accused countries, including the United States, of trying to interfere in Russia's affairs since he secured a six-year third term as president last year. Speaking after race riots in Moscow this month, Putin also urged the holy mans to help Moslem immigrants adapt to life in Russia to reduce the likelihood of violence.