NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

...How things have changed...

...Moreover Putin, who was easily reelected earlier this year, has systematically muzzled what democratic institutions do exist, restricted civil rights, and done little to establish a fair judicial system or rule of law...

...Benjamin Disraeli once quipped that things in Russia were never as good as they seem, nor never as bad...

...So it was not unreasonable for the U.S...

...Predictably, hundreds of millions of dollars have made their way into the effort, and even more predictably, the Russians have used no small part of these funds for things other than "Cooperative Threat Reduction," as the project is called, and may have even used some of our money to store or even build more weapons...

...The program has helped to reduce Russia's stockpile of WMDs considerably, but it has not been without intrigue and corruption, as our ace reporter Shawn Macomber makes clear...

...Under the circumstances, we should probably expect little else from such a joint venture, but the story tells a great deal about two different national mentalities...

...Pipes further points out that this restriction of freedom and democracy is of little concern to much of the Russian populace, which always treasured security and order over free institutions...

...Thus we are pleased to introduce to our readers Russia experts Herman Pirchner and Ilan Berman, who outline how Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has restored a degree of social and economic order, has made friends with George W. Bush, has his eye to the West, and who, among other things, has stabilized Russia's finances, transformed his country into the world's largest energy exporter, and turned the former USSR into one of our most important allies...

...NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER The Line on Russia BY ALFRED S. REGNERY RECALL STANDING IN RED SQUARE IN MOSCOW during fthe summer of 1968, watching long lines of tired and beaten-down Russians waiting to go into Lenin's tomb to catch a glimpse of the old Bolshevik mummy, and thinking that Russian Communism had time on its side, and that time had helped it win...

...It proved, for a while anyway, to be chaotic, corrupt, and a virtual criminal enterprise, ruled by many of the same people who were in charge before the fall, but this time without the order imposed by Marxism-Leninism...

...As Pirchner and Berman conclude, the possibility that another ruthless, anti-Western dictatorship will emerge in Russia cannot be dismissed...

...Congress to offer its assistance to help neutralize these weapons...

...Half a century of totalitarian regime was enough, I thought, to have stamped out the vestiges of anything but the Communist-imposed mentality in these people...

...Specifically, Putin has been methodically returning Russia to one-party rule and, as Richard Pipes reports in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs, has reinstated Russia's traditional model ofgovernment: an autocratic state in which citizens are relieved of responsibility for politics, and where order is far more important than freedom...

...When the old Soviet Union came apart, Russia was left with many dubious legacies, including one of particular concern to the United States: the world's largest inventory of weapons of mass destruction...

...That is not to say that Russia is about to emerge as a model of democracy and freedom...

...Putin's success in restoring order has been undertaken at the expense of all those things that Westerners cherish but may mean little to most Russians...

...He may still be correct...

...But things do change, often for the better...

...Time was not on the Communists' side after all, and just over two decades after my wrong conclusion the world was speculating on what the new Russian Federation had in store...