Putin's Russia: From basket case to resurgent superpower

Vladimir Putin and his Russia look more invincible today than at any other time in his 18 years in power.

FILE In this file photo taken on Friday, Dec. 31, 1999, Former President Boris Yeltsin smiles as he holds a door before leaving his study as then Russian acting President and Premier Vladimir Putin listens in the Kremlin, Russia. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Since Putin last faced an election in 2012, Russians have invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, blanket-bombed Syria, been accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election and claimed to have a scary new nuclear arsenal.

FILE In this file photo taken on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2000, Russian soldiers fire artillery at rebel positions near the village of Duba-Yurt, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the capital Grozny, Russia. (AP Photo/Maxim Marmur, File)

"No one listened to us. You listen to us now," he said earlier this month, boasting about those weapons.

Putin will overwhelmingly win re-election as president on March 18, again. So why bother holding a vote at all?

FILE - In this file photo taken in Feb. 2000, Russian soldiers rest at Minutka square, in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia. (AP Photo/Dmitry Belyakov, File)

He disdains democracy as messy and dangerous — yet he craves the legitimacy conferred by an election. He needs tangible evidence that Russians need him and his great-power vision more than they worry about the freedoms he has muffled, the endemic corruption he has failed to eradicate, the sanctions he invited by his actions in Crimea and Ukraine.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, Pro-Russian rebels fire artillery toward Ukrainian position at Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport outskirts the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, file)

"Any autocrat wants love," said analyst Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center, and Putin gets that love "from high support in elections."

Expected to win as much as 80 percent of the vote, Putin will further cement his authority over Russia, a czar-like figure with a democratic veneer.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Friday, March 3, 2000, Acting President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with workers during his visit to an oil and gas field in Surgut, western Siberia, Russia. (AP Photo/Pool, File)

During his 14 years as president and four years as prime minister of the world's largest country, Putin has transformed Russia's global image, consolidated power over its politics and economy and imprisoned opponents. He has offered asylum to Edward Snowden, quieted extremism in long-restive Chechnya, hosted phenomenally expensive Olympic Games and won the right to stage this year's World Cup.

Now 65-years-old, he's not planning to leave anytime soon.

For 19-year-old art history student Maria Pogodina, "Putin is all of my conscious life, and so it's clear I have a lot to say thank you for."

FILE - In this file photo taken on Sunday, March 26, 2000, Acting Russian President and Presidential candidate Vladimir Putin talks with representatives of the news media at a polling station in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko, file)

FILE - In this file photo taken on Tuesday, March 31, 2009, Former Yukos oil giant CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky smiles towards massed photographers from a courtroom glass dock in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

Yet Pogodina worries about some of his policies as she prepares to vote and hopes to see a gradual transformation.

FILE-In this Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 file photo members of the Russian radical feminist group chant a prayer against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev, file)

"I am not talking about revolution, no way," the teenager said, summing up the stance of many Russians of all ages. "I hope and believe it won't happen and that we can avoid civil conflict."

FILE - In this file photo taken on Friday, May 7, 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin walks through St.George's Hall to take part in an inauguration ceremony in Moscow's Kremlin, Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File )

The election will confirm Putin's argument that to improve life in Russia, the country needs continuity more than it needs drastic change, independent media, political opposition, environmental activism or rights for homosexuals and other minorities.

Russia will remain disproportionately dependent on oil prices, and its 144 million people will stay poorer than they should be — and many will remain convinced that the world is out to get them.

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 26, 2013, file photo transit passengers eat at a cafe with a TV screen with a news program showing a report on Edward Snowden, in the background, at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

FILE - In this file photo taken on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012, Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

Putin's most important mission in the next six years will be working out a plan for what happens when his next term expires in 2024: Will he anoint a friendly successor or invent a scheme that allows him to keep holding the reins?

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2014, file photo International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin watched the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, file)

Today's all-powerful Putin bears little resemblance to the man who took his tentative first steps as president on the eve of the new millennium.

Catapulted to power on Boris Yeltsin's surprise resignation as president, Putin walked into his new office Dec. 31, 1999, in a suit that seemed too big for his shoulders. His low-level KGB background made him seem shifty, and many Russians regarded him as little more than a puppet of the oligarchs then pulling the Kremlin's strings.

FILE - In this Sunday, July 20, 2014, file photo Ukrainian Emergency workers carry a victim's body in a body bag as pro-Russian fighters stand guard at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, file)

Russia was still emerging from a tumultuous post-Soviet hangover. Contract killings dominated headlines, its army couldn't afford socks for its soldiers, and its budget was still dependent on foreign loans.

Eighteen years later, Putin's friends run the economy and Russia's military is resurgent.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the troops at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Pool Photo via AP, File)

An entire generation has never known a Russia without Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in charge. And an increasing number of other leaders — President Donald Trump among them — are emulating his nationalist, besieged fortress mentality.

The once-feisty Russian media has fallen silent. Kremlin propaganda now has a global audience, via far-reaching networks RT and Sputnik.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Friday, July 7, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Yet while Putin looks invulnerable on the surface, he has reason to worry.

The Kremlin is lashing out at opposition leader Alexei Navalny's recent investigations of corruption, fearing they could spur public uproar. And the battle for succession threatens to cause damaging splits within Putin's inner circle.

Meanwhile, Russia's disillusioned youth could turn against him. Some have joined Navalny's protests; others just won't bother to vote, quietly sapping his power.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, attends a rally in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman, File)

As Putin faces challenges at home, expect more Russian chest-thumping abroad.

"The international environment is an instrument for him in managing those domestic challenges first and foremost," said Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute in Washington. "He can declare something like a Syria intervention or something in the post-Soviet space."

And a newly elected Putin is likely to continue the Cold War-like relationship with Trump's the United States.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, attends a wreath-laying ceremony during the Defenders of the Fatherland Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russia sees the investigation into alleged meddling in the U.S. election as concocted — but also as a sign that Russia is important again, and that Americans are obsessed with weakening Russia at all costs.

"Does the U.S. treat Russia equally? Does it take Russia seriously? That's an enormously important benchmark" for Russians, Rojansky said. "They are not benchmarking themselves against China."

Ever since a leading U.S. diplomat was recorded giving instructions to Ukrainian opposition figures, Russians have been convinced that Washington caused the Ukraine conflict by messing in Russia's backyard and that America bears responsibility for the ensuing fighting. It has killed thousands and remains unresolved.

Russia's annexation of Crimea prompted U.S. and European Union sanctions, sending Putin's popularity skyrocketing.

Crimea is framed as Russia's biggest victory in the Putin era, a restoration of might and righting of historical wrongs. To drive the message home, the March 18 election is being held on the fourth anniversary of the takeover.

The last time Putin faced voters, he also was guaranteed victory but was on shakier ground. A movement led by Navalny had brought masses to the streets of Moscow and other cities, as the educated middle class chafed at Putin's backward-looking vision.

Since then, Navalny has been arrested repeatedly and is barred from running for president for criminal convictions that are seen as politically driven. Other opposition figures also have been sidelined, such as onetime billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent 10 years in prison for tax fraud charges seen as punishment for political ambitions. He now lives abroad.

Meanwhile, Russia's problems persist.

Putin has barely bothered with campaigning. When he does, he promises a brighter future, implicitly acknowledging a lackluster present.

With around 20 million Russians currently living below the official poverty line of about $180 a month, he pledges higher wages and pensions. He wants better health care to boost life expectancy from 73, several years below European levels. Recent space launch failures have drawn attention to troubles with the struggling aerospace industry, once a pillar of Soviet pride, and he wants Russia to catch up on robotic technologies and artificial intelligence.

"To put it mildly, Putin will have plenty to do in his next term," Kolesnikov said.

Notably, he must ensure that his country can outlast him.

Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin asked, "sooner or later there will be no Putin, and at that point, what will we do with Russia?"

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — BNSF Railway attorneys told a Montana jury Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.

Attorneys for the company say the corporate predecessors of the railroad, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, didn't know the vermiculite they hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers or that asbestos was dangerous.

BNSF attorney Chad Knight said the railroad could only be held liable if it could have foreseen the health hazards of asbestos based on information available decades ago when the alleged exposures happened.

“In the 50s, 60s and 70s no one in the public suspected there might be health concerns,” Knight said.

The case in federal civil court is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana. Current and former residents of the small town near the U.S.-Canada border want BNSF held accountable for its alleged role in asbestos exposure that health officials say has killed several hundred people and sickened thousands.

The seven-member jury met briefly Friday and planned to resume deliberations on Monday morning. They were instructed to decide if the railroad was at fault in the deaths and if so, the amount of damages to award to their estates. If the jurors find that the railroad should also face punitive damages, a separate hearing would determine that amount.

Looming over the proceedings is W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical company that operated a mountaintop vermiculite mine 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside of Libby until it was closed 1990. The Maryland-based company played a central role in Libby's tragedy and has paid significant settlements to victims.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris has referred to the the chemical company as “the elephant in the room” in the BNSF trial. He reminded jurors several times that the case was about the railroad's conduct, not W.R. Grace's separate liability.

How much W.R. Grace revealed about the asbestos dangers to Texas-based BNSF and its corporate predecessors has been sharply disputed. The plaintiffs argued that railroad higher-ups were aware, but that workers on the ground in Libby were left out of the loop.

“We're here to make a party that accepts zero responsibility accept an appropriate amount of responsibility,” plaintiffs' attorney Mark Lanier said. “This is the fault of the bigwigs in the corporate office.”

The judge instructed the jury it could only find the railroad negligent based on its actions in the Libby Railyard, not for hauling the vermiculite.

The railroad said it was obliged under law to ship the vermiculite, which was used in insulation and for other commercial purposes. It said W.R. Grace employees had concealed the health hazards from the railroad.

Former railroad workers said during testimony and in depositions that they knew nothing about the risks of asbestos. They said Grace employees were responsible for loading the hopper cars, plugging the holes of any cars leaking vermiculite and occasionally cleaned up material that spilled in the rail yard.

The estates of the two deceased plaintiffs have argued that the W.R. Grace’s actions don’t absolve BNSF of its responsibility for failing to clean up the vermiculite that spilled in the railyard in the heart of the community.

Their attorneys said BNSF should have known about the dangers because Grace put signs on rail cars carrying vermiculite warning of potential health risks. They showed jurors an image of a warning label allegedly attached to rail cars in the late 1970s that advised against inhaling the asbestos dust because it could cause bodily harm.

Family members of Tom Wells and Joyce Walder testified that their lives ended soon after they were diagnosed with mesothelioma. The families said the dust blowing from the rail yard sickened and killed them.

In a March 2020 video of Wells played for jurors and recorded the day before he died, he lay in a home hospital bed, struggling to breathe.

“I’ve been placed in a horrible spot here, and the best chance I see at release — relief for everybody — is to just get it over with,” he said. “It’s just not something I want to try and play hero through because I don’t think that there’s a miracle waiting.”

The Environmental Protection Agency descended on Libby after the 1999 news reports. In 2009 it declared in Libby the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the federal Superfund cleanup program.

The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick for years to come, health officials say.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

FILE - Environmental cleanup specialists work at one of the last remaining residential asbestos cleanup sites in Libby, Montana, in mid-September. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. (Kurt Wilson/The Missoulian via AP, File)

FILE - Dr. Lee Morissette shows an image of lungs damaged by asbestos exposure, at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Libby, Mont. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

FILE - In this April 27, 2011, file photo, the entrance to downtown Libby, Mont., is seen. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)