RUSSIA: Recent Events Show That Putin Is In Charge.

LATIMES/ Sergei L. Loiko /

   Forget President Dmitry Medvedev. From the ashes of the devastating fires surrounding Moscow and an embarrassing spy scandal, a macho leader has re-emerged, PM Vladimir Putin. Putin is positioning himself to reclaim the presidency a little more than a year and a half from now.
LOIKO: "While Medvedev appears mostly confined to his Kremlin office, Putin is rushing around the country with the news media in tow. He comforts fire victims, upbraids local officials — and publicly dictates to the president what should be done about the fires that have killed 40 people and ravaged more than 1.2 million acres." "It is quite obvious that Putin uses these difficult times to show the people who is the strong man in the country, who is the national leader, who is the can-do man — and who is just a Kremlin clerk,"  said Kremlinologist Lilia Shevtsova.

ALSO SEE  new posting by  columnist ANDREW OSBORN:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewosborn/100049573/in-russia-the-age-of-putin-mark-ii-is-already-looming/