Putin doesn't care what we think - Harvard Gazette

"No, and anyone who tells you that they did is not being honest (laughs). There were plenty of people who were very clear-eyed from the beginning about Putin's origins in the KGB, his suspicions of the West, his lamentation about Russia's lost empire. We knew plenty of people in Moscow and some people in the United States who saw that he was no democrat, that he was no long-term friend of the United States."

"On Oct. 7 - Putin's 73rd birthday - the Gazette spoke with Susan Glasser '90, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and her husband, Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, about the Russian president and the five U.S. presidents he's faced during his 25-plus years in office, a topic they're exploring for a forthcoming book. Glasser and Baker, fall fellows at the Institute of Politics, reported from Moscow on Putin's early years in office, work that shaped their 2005 book "Kremlin Rising.""

Vladimir Putin rose to power in late 1999 as acting president following Boris Yeltsin's resignation. He is three years from surpassing Josef Stalin as Russia's longest-serving leader of the last two centuries. Putin has faced five U.S. presidents during his more than 25 years in office. Many observers recognized his KGB origins, deep suspicions of the West, and nostalgia for Russia's lost empire. Few observers anticipated the extent of his longevity. U.S. presidents of both parties entered office believing they could manage him, but each found Putin to be a singular, unmanageable challenge.

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