The Monk may not have looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes and obtained a read on his soul, but he feels that Pres. Bush's evaluation of Putin is going to be touted by Democrats for years to come as a poor man's equivalent of FDR's friendliness with Stalin. Putin is an autocrat, former high officer in the KGB and has taken innumerable steps to stifle dissent and enforce a cult-of-personality based government in Russia. Gary Kasparov, the former chess champion who is an avatar for Russian freedom and democracy, had a column in the Wall Street Journal about Putin's creeping totalitarianism. If Opinion Journal publishes it this weekend, we'll try to link it.
You can tell the true nature of a person not from viewing his soul through eye contact but by the company he keeps. Putin's recent overtures to China, Venezuela, support of autarchies in Belarus and Ukraine, and deals with Iran for technology clearly place Russia in a category of states hostile, by deed if not necessarily by word, to the interests of the United States.
Reuben F. Johnson has more, from The Weekly Standard (link in title).
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