All The Wrong Moves: Putin Plots His Strategy Against The Protesters

On Thursday morning, while the Russian opposition was busy preparing another wave of demonstrations in Moscow and more than 70 other cities, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with his team of imagemakers to discuss their counterstrategy. They chose to envision their dilemma as a game of chess. "We need to look at the chessboard," Putin said, "where all the moves are clear, both the white and the black." The opponent in this game, as Putin went on to explain, is not so much local opposition leaders, who this week organized the largest protests ever against his rule, but the "American partners" moving them around like pawns.

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