Putin lashes out at West
President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia faces unfair criticism and needless military threats from the West, lashing out in an annual news conference at US plans for missile defence sites in former Soviet satellite states and at suspicions that Moscow is wielding its energy wealth for political purposes.
Putin held forth on a broad range of issues at the more than three-and-a-half-hour marathon, but he left two key questions unanswered: whom he wants to succeed him and who he believes is behind the shocking slayings of Kremlin critics that have damaged his reputation and will cloud his legacy after he steps down.
