This month Putin surprised even the biggest Russia experts: he pardoned his biggest enemy and critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. There were some surprises for Putin too from crises regions.
Even in the most remote provinces across Russia and its satellites, in post-industrial towns drowning in discontent, children study in arts schools, learn painting, music or ballet.
Fear is the real legacy of Putin's Russia, particularly in Russia's 342 "monotowns," single industry centers where economies are collapsing and dissent is not tolerated.
The Kremlin offered to re-locate Russians living in monotowns. But many are unhappy to leave places that several generations of their families have called home.
Corruption, fear and asbestos dust mar the day-to-day of monotown Asbest. Like hundreds more industrial towns dependent on a single industry, residents search urgently for an exit strategy.
People in a mono-town Asbest are more afraid of anti-asbestos campaign than of asbestos. But now authorities give citizens of Russian mono-towns a chance to escape dependence on a single industry.
She fell in love with Lake Baikal and for decades struggled to shut down the pulp mill that was polluting it in monotown of Baikalsk. The mill was shut; Baikal was saved — but now she is in trouble.
How does a small town in the middle of Siberia move forward when the biggest local employer shuts down? Baikalsk is one of hundreds of monotowns across Russia struggling to find an answer.
Majority of Russians say that Lake Baikal should be the symbol of Russia. But in monotown Baikalsk hundreds of workers who lost their jobs this month say they feel cheated by Moscow.
Russian Reactors for Sale: The federation is aggressively selling reactors all over the world.
Pulitzer Center's Marvin Kalb looks behind the current of Vladimir Putin's Op-Ed in The New York Times.
Residents of Teriberka, in Russia's far north, are weary of empty buildings and empty promises.
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