After a decade in power, Putin not ready to quit

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin celebrated a decade in power Sunday, and it appears the former KGB strongman may maintain his grip on Russia's government for years to come.

Supporters credit him with rescuing the economy from the post-Soviet doldrums and restoring national pride. Critics say the price — rolling back democratic reforms and stifling dissent — has been too high.

It has been 10 years since an ailing Boris Yeltsin promoted Putin from security chief to prime minister on Aug. 9, 1999. He was elected president the following year and in 2008 he handed the post — but not all the power — to a hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin became prime minister again, allowed almost all the men he surrounded himself with as president to remain in power, and is still understood to call the major shots.

And the signs are that the 56-year-old is far from ready to loosen his grip on power. The muscle-bound St. Petersburg native stripped to the waist for a man-versus-nature photo shoot in southern Siberia earlier this week, plunging fearlessly into an icy river and climbing cliffs and trees.

Observers see little impediment to Putin's goal of holding the reins until and even after 2020.

"Putin can easily rule until 2012 (the next elections) or longer," said Lilia Shevtsova, of the Carnegie Moscow Center, stressing his handling of the current crisis could play a decisive role in his future.

Between his two times as prime minister — the brief stint in 1999 and the current term he is serving since last year — Putin sandwiched a presidency that cleared the political landscape of opponents.

Putin reversed the democratic achievements of Yeltsin by abolishing the direct election of regional governors, marginalized the liberal opposition and, critics say, instilled an atmosphere of impunity for those who silence his challengers by fair means or foul.

Under Putin, who once told journalists to keep their "snotty noses" out of his business, independent media are few and far between, and those outlets not under state control are intimidated into subordination. A cartoon network showing U.S. shows last month censored an episode of hit comedy South Park that poked fun at Putin.

According to a recent Freedom House count, 16 journalists have been killed since Putin came to power, with only one case solved. Probably the highest-profile death was that of Anna Politkovskaya, the Novaya Gazeta reporter who wrote articles on Chechnya and the book "Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy."