PUBLIC MARKS with tag putin

In recent months Putin’s rhetoric against the U.S. - supported by his notion of the U.S.’s overbearing, hegemonic, influence in global affairs - has risen to a near fever pitch. Is this just good old fashioned Soviet paranoia? After all, Vladimir Putin is a product of the Soviet KGB - as an intelligence officer at the highest point of the Cold War.

As Putin’s official Presidential term of office nears its conclusion - with elections set for March of 2008 - it appears the pressures of diplomatic double-speak and the shackles of friendly innuendo have been released. President Putin took the relaxed - almost unofficial - mood of the Munich conference to lay a verbal volley of criticisms directly at the ‘hegemonic’ United States and its aspirations for ‘global domination.’

En el país de las grandes glorias del ajedrez, como Kasparov, ha nacido una variante electrónica del juego, que causa furor entre los internautas rusos y podría llegar a convertirse en una moda global como la del tetris, el tamagochi o cualquiera de los productos de entretenimiento insignia de la era cibernética. El Putin-Chess tiene en común con el ajedrez el tablero y las fichas, pero las reglas son completamente diferentes y de hecho está pensado para un solo jugador. Los que lo han probado dicen que tiene efecto adictivo y pueden pasarse horas ante la pantalla sin notar que corre el tiempo.

Do país das grandes glórias do xadrez chega uma nova moda – o Putin-chess online. O jogo arrisca-se a ser um caso sério de sucesso tão ou mais viciante do que o tetris ou o tamagochi.