The retrenchment in Russia is real, but not unexpected

■"The Rollback of Democracy In Vladimir Putin's Russia: Tenure Marked by Consolidation of Power," by Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser, Washington Post, 7 June 2005, p. A1.

Excerpt from book this is.

I'm sure the book is good because both of the journalists are good. My problem with the thesis is this: Russia never had a democracy in the 1990s. It had chaos and thievery and gangland violence.

Now it has order, and the economic growth is slower. Still no democracy.

But don't kid yourselves on the slippage. It was too much freedom too fast. Putin's retrenchment is Tiananmen without the demonstrations and the slaughter.